For the First Time in Never
by JEGlass
Summary: A man with a secret and a past he desperately wants to avoid. A queen not looking for love but finding it in unexpected places. They say love is powerful and strange, that it can melt a frozen heart, and that maybe, just maybe, it can bring two wayward souls together and erase the sins of the past.
1. Chapter 1

Elsa watched Anna make her twentieth circuit of the small vestibule, heeled footfalls echoing around the chamber like hammer blows. Each time she passed under a stream of light coming through the high windows her white and purple dress shimmered and winked, light refracting off the thousands of tiny crystal beads like frost reflecting the sun.

"You're going to wear a hole in the marble if you keep this up," Elsa commented lightly from her place beside the closed wooden doors, trying hard to hide her smile. Anna threw her a contemptuous look, white gloved hands opening and closing as she tried to calm herself. How in the hell Elsa had worn gloves for most of her life the princess would never know. They were itchy and constricting and _hot._

The queen put a hand over her heart and pantomimed being struck by something. "If looks could kill, little sister, I'd be dead on the floor."

"You're not helping," Anna said, continuing to pace.

Elsa sighed and fell into step beside her, linking arms.

"Anna, you're going to be alright. Just breathe."

"I can't," Anna whined and stopped in front of the doors that led into the chapel. "What if he's not waiting for me? What if I trip? What if I somehow fall into a candle stand and light the whole chapel on fire?"

"Yes, what if that exact scenario happened?" Elsa said, raising an eyebrow. Sometimes her sister's imagination blew her away. Anna looked on the verge of tears, a telltale redness creeping into her nose as her eyes turned glassy. The queen quickly stepped in front of her and took her sister's face in her cool hands, forcing the princess to look at her.

"Anna, listen to me. You're going to be fine; you just have to calm down. You're not going to trip, there are no candles in the chapel save for the unity candle behind the altar, and Kristoff isn't going to leave you for two reasons. One, he loves you more than life itself. You two were engaged for almost two years, which is a far cry better than your first attempt." Elsa winked at Anna's outraged expression. It felt good making light of the whole Hans situation even if it had happened almost three years ago. "And the second reason, Kristoff knows his life would be forfeit if he broke the heart of the queen's little sister."

"You wouldn't dare," Anna said with a small smile, attempting to dab the tears from her eyes before they fell and ruined her carefully applied makeup. It had taken Gerda almost an hour to get it right.

"Dare what? Castrate the poor fool and use his man bits for inkwells while his head makes a pretty decoration on my wall? No, of course not. How utterly barbaric," Elsa grinned devilishly. Anna playfully pushed her, anxiety lessening the more she laughed.

"You're horrible."

Elsa shrugged. "I have my moments. It's just good to hear you laugh. This should be a happy day! You've dreamed about it since we were little."

Anna rubbed her shoulder sheepishly and cast a nervous glance over at the still closed doors. How long did it take for everyone to be seated and for bishop Arren to finish? Reluctantly taking her sister's advice, she took a breath that started at her toes and stopped at the top of her head. After a five count, she exhaled the breath in a rush. Elsa was right, she had been dreaming of this moment for years. Anna partially blamed all the romantic stories and poetry she'd read over the years; those lovely pages painting pictures in her mind about how beautiful romance and love could be when it was true and pure. She'd spent hours devouring as many novels as she could find, oftentimes rereading what she'd already read and envisioning herself in the place of the maiden or exotic princess. But what the stories had never touched on was how nerve-wracking it was standing outside the chapel waiting for the doors to—

The old polished wood creaked on its hinges as the two guards inside pushed them open in perfect unison, bathing the vestibule in warm golden light. Anna blinked in the sudden brightness and felt Elsa step next to her, right arm linking with her left.

"Just remember to breathe. This is your day," the queen whispered as they stepped up to the threshold. Anna swallowed the lump in her throat as all three hundred guests seated in the pews flanking either side of the chapel rose and turned to look at her. At about the same time, the choir standing in the circular loft above the altar began to sing a gentle ballad in Latin that grew in volume as Anna and Elsa began their slow march up to where bishop Arren and a nervous Kristoff waited.

Elsa glanced at Anna out of the corner of her eye and felt a warm smile spread across her face. Her sister was a natural beauty, like sunshine captured in living flesh, but today she was practically radiant. The dress Elsa had commissioned for the princess, partially because it was tradition for the ruling monarch to have a say in what a soon-to-be-wedded princess should wear, and partially because Anna was scatterbrained and forgot to send for the royal tailor, was a stunning piece of clothing the likes of which Arendelle hadn't seen in years.

The princess wore a primarily white silk dress accented with wide stripes of soft lavender in the front folds of her skirt in order to break up the monotony of pristine white. Beads of cut crystal had been painstakingly sewn atop the white silk like a spider's web; the bands of light streaming in from the high arch windows on either side of the chapel made the crystals flash and shimmer like caged fire as Anna walked. A light lavender sweetheart bodice, embroidered with creeping purple ivy, complemented with matching lace hemming along the wide shoulder straps, hugged Anna's slender waist and chest. And under it all was a long sleeve, high necked gossamer underdress that tapered into triangular points at the back of her hands. Upon Anna's request, Elsa also had a veil made that could attach to Anna's tiara which she barely wore but was adamant about wearing today, her hair pulled back in an intricate bun braid complete with interwoven purple ribbon.

In comparison, Elsa wore a more plain-looking dress to not draw attention away from her sister. It was a modified version of her coronation dress with a few marked differences. A light blue bodice and skirt replaced the green and purple original, set over top a dark blue underdress with a matching gossamer cape. She'd made a few changes to the gown, shortening the sleeves, lowered the neckline of the underdress, and replaced the fabric with gossamer silk rather than the suede of her old coronation dress. Her skirt was embroidered with swirling snowflakes along the bottom, and the white gold clasps that held her cape in place just below the hollow of her throat had been carved to look like snowflakes. It was a beautiful dress, but it paled in comparison to Anna's as Elsa had intended.

The two stopped at the bottom of the altar where bishop Arren stood three steps higher than the rest of the assembly, red and white ceremonial robes as immaculate as ever. In his hands he held a massive leatherback tome already opened to the proper page, and nodded affectionately at the royal sisters. Kristoff shifted again, no doubt knowing his bride-to-be was standing mere feet from him but was unable to turn and look at her until she was given away.

"Dearly beloved," Arren began in a clear voice that carried the entire length of the chapel, "we are gathered here today to witness the union of Princess Anna Frosberg and Barron Kristoff Bjorgman in holy matrimony."

Elsa fought back a snigger at the mention of Kristoff's "official" title. It had been a necessary step in ensuring Anna could marry the man she loved while making absolutely sure that, should they have children anytime in the future, their claim to the throne would go unchallenged. Elsa had named Kristoff "Barron of the Northern Mountains", a title that really meant nothing since there was no land or power attached to it, but it cemented him as part of the elite nobility and gave him the lawful right to marry Anna. Still, the title had galled the ice harvester at first until Elsa had explained he could either take the title or leave Anna.

"Who here has the authority and right to give away the princess?" Arren asked looking out over the crowd just as he was supposed to.

"I do," Elsa said stepping forward and raising her voice. "I, Elsa Frosberg, ruling monarch of Arendelle Kingdom and Queen of the Northern Realms, do hereby give my sister's hand freely to Barron Kristoff Bjorgman."

Bishop Arren nodded and smiled. "The Church accepts and recognizes this giving."

Elsa bowed slightly at the waist and turned to take her seat in the front row, leaving Anna and Kristoff to finish the rest.

The two lovers slowly turned towards one another, neither having seen the other since sunrise that morning. At the sight of his dazzling bride, Kristoff mouthed a stunned "wow", eyes as big as dinner plates. He was dressed in a fitted black, open-fronted jacket with silver buttons and a lavender undershirt dyed to match Anna's dress. A royal purple sash around his waist brought the outfit together and cut the mountain man a handsome figure. Anna seemed as stunned as her husband-to-be, though he couldn't see her expression until Arren allowed him to lift the veil as the ceremony continued.

It didn't take long for the vows to be exchanged, the rings brought by a bounding Olaf who practically sprinted down the aisle with gleeful delight, and the final "I do's" to be said. Anna all but lunged at Kristoff when Arren finally announced them husband and wife, grabbing the mountain man by the collar and pulling him into a blushingly deep kiss that lasted a few seconds longer than was necessary. Arren discreetly cleared his throat and the two separated, both red faced but smiling a giddy smile that only newlyweds could grin.

* * *

><p>To say the reception and accompanying ball directly after the wedding was large would have been a gross understatement. It was a massive event hosting numerous royal guests from kingdoms far and wide, all eager to participate in the celebration of the princess of Arendelle's wedding. Hundreds of people packed the spacious ballroom and the castle courtyard, both decorated by Elsa with help from her arctic magic. Some danced, others ate, while most congregated in tight clusters eager for the festivities to fully commence. The queen made her appearance an hour after the wedding, after changing into a gown better suited for the night's festivities. Anna and Kristoff appeared a few minutes later, the princess declaring the party officially begun, much to the joy of the crowd.<p>

For hours, Elsa circulated the ballroom, bowing to dignitaries, dancing with eligible princes, as well as once or twice with an absolutely elated Olaf who had made it a game of meeting and greeting everyone at the party, and discussing some of the finer points of trade and negotiations with those trusted few with whom she did business on a regular basis. By the time the sun had finally set, the queen retreated to her dais and sank gratefully into her cushioned throne, never so happy to be off her feet.

_What I wouldn't give for a sensible pair of shoes,_ Elsa thought as she attempted to wiggle life back into her numb toes and glaring daggers at the opaque blue shoe encasing her foot. Heels were the appropriate party fashion, but she'd give almost anything to just slip into a pair of soft suede slippers and lounge.

By now, most of the guests had filtered out of the ballroom. Those who wanted to continue private conversation, or who wanted a chance to leave the stifling chamber, fled to the courtyard or the isolation of the adjoining hallways, significantly thinning the crowd. The queen lazily watched the few remaining clusters of dancing couples make slow circuits around the dance floor, not noticing Anna as she mounted the dais until the princess threw her arms around her and squeezed tightly. Elsa gave a startled squeak, a small burst of arctic air rolling from her fingertips.

"Why are you up here all alone?" Anna asked suppressing a shiver as the cold air brushed past her.

"My feet have revolted against me and refuse to stop screaming," Elsa said, wiggling her foot.

"That's what you get for wearing heels," Anna replied in her sweetest voice. She didn't have to tell her sister 'I told you so' flat out; Elsa already knew what she was thinking and made a face.

"That's what I get for being queen."

Anna stuck her tongue out, and Elsa laughed. It still felt strange spending time in the ballroom with her sister. Of course the last three years had seen countless balls and parties take place in the spacious chamber, but the queen could still see the ghosts of that fateful day three years ago replay in her mind's eye when she'd very nearly brought her kingdom to its knees. Through the press of bodies, she could see her freshly crowned younger self quickly moving away from a frustrated Anna, back and shoulders so tight she could still recall the muscle cramps. Then came that terrifying moment when it had become too much to hold in any longer. Her ice had sprayed from her hands in a crackling blast, effectively cutting herself off from her sister and subjects with a wall of glittering spikes. Elsa felt a shiver run down her spine and looked away, not wanting to see the ghosts anymore, not wanting to feel the threads of guilt and shame that still lingered, or the fear that still crept up on her at night when she was alone with her thoughts.

"Hey, are you ok?" Anna asked seeing the change in her sister's expression.

Elsa let out a quick breath and gave her a reassuring nod. "I think I just need to get outside."

"Ok," Anna said, standing and pulling her up by the arm.

"You really don't have to—"

"Oh hush. I know how you get when you're around crowds too long. I would have come and rescued you sooner, but Kristoff insisted on 'just one more dance'," Anna said imitating her husband's voice in an exaggerated way.

Elsa smiled and allowed herself to be led away, nodding to guests as she went in both greeting and farewell. Anna pushed open the tall balcony doors just beyond the ballroom with her hip, and Elsa practically cried with relief. The night had turned out cooler than expected, and the cold air was like a soothing balm on her skin. Moving to the railing, the queen closed her eyes and breathed in the crisp night air, letting the wind pull loose strands of hair free and tug at the icy fabric of her 'Snow Queen' dress, as Anna had come to call it.

"Better?"

"So much better," Elsa grinned putting her weight on the banister, happy to give her aching feet a reprieve. The two stood in companionable silence for a handful of minutes, looking out over the courtyard at the kingdom beyond and at the tiny specks of golden light shining from hundreds of windows illuminating the night. Arendelle was a beautiful kingdom by day, but it was at night when the town and countryside truly came to life as candles and fires were lit, yellow jewels glimmering in a not so distant galaxy. Not too far in the distance, the sisters could hear the gentle peal of ship bells as heavy freighters, loaded down with trade goods and produce, slid into port with the wind in their furled sails. A sea breeze rolled past the castle bringing with it the scent of cooked food, the sound of muffled conversation, and salt water as it swirled around the courtyard like a dervish.

Anna scooted closer to her sister and nudged her with her shoulder. "I saw you dancing tonight."

Elsa snorted and rolled her eyes. Ah yes, dancing. It wasn't that the queen _couldn't_ dance. The curriculum for becoming a proper royal demanded that she know at least thirty dance routines varying from ethnic jigs to back achingly straight waltzes. Growing up in self-imposed isolation, Elsa had been traumatized by the very idea of having another person touch her, so learning these dances had been a difficult chore, but she'd found a measure of peace in the rhythmic flow of a body drifting in sync with a musical score. It reminded her of how her power flowed through her body, flurries and fractals spiraling in time with the beat of her heart. After the Great Freeze, the queen had slowly embraced her secret love for dance; though, after years of limited human contact, getting up the courage to dance with strangers had been a nerve-wracking experience.

"Yes well," Elsa coughed, "the duties of a queen are never done."

"Oh stop it; I know you enjoyed yourself," Anna scoffed lightheartedly. She tapped her chin as if trying to remember something. "Who was that one guy with the fluffy black hair and long coat tails?"

"Prince Vestrad," Elsa sneered recalling the name instantly. It wasn't like she could have forgotten. The Turkish prince had a nasty habit of speaking in third person, making any form of conversation awkward and very one-sided.

"He seemed to…know his way around the dance floor," Anna giggled, knowing her sister would pick up on her sarcasm. Watching Elsa and the Turkish prince dance had been like watching a moose try and tiptoe across a frozen lake. Not only had he been unbalanced, offbeat, and uncoordinated, he'd been blessed with large feet that seemed to be just as awkward as he was. Elsa attributed a large portion of her foot pain to that dance and winced at the memory.

"He was just nervous," she said offhandedly.

"He was a cad," Anna sniffed.

"Granted, yes. But anyway, how did _your_ dances with Kristoff go?" Elsa asked turning the tide of conversation. Anna made a face somewhere between a wince and a smile, and the queen suppressed a laugh.

"His lessons definitely paid off, and after a few drinks he loosened up." Anna puffed out her cheeks and released a slow breath. "Loosened up quite a bit actually. Every new song he wanted to try a different step until I think we were just skipping around the ballroom while everyone watched. Olaf thought it was the funniest thing and copied us for about an hour."

"Well, at least you can't fault him for not attempting to try," Elsa giggled with a lopsided grin. Again, Anna stuck her tongue out at her. The queen had required Kristoff to start dance lessons the week after his proposal to her sister, hoping that the mountain man would retain at least small fragments of class for their wedding dance. It appeared her foresight had paid off.

"You really were beautiful today," Elsa said after a stretch of silence, her eyes wandering up into the heavens where the stars were beginning to shine like distant frost on a blue-black blanket. For once she didn't feel like something was glaring back at her and was contented just to stare at the natural beauty of the night sky. She felt Anna shift beside her and knew her sister was blushing without having to look.

"Thank you. You were beautiful, too."

There was a strange tightness to the princess's voice that caught the queen off guard. Elsa turned and was bewildered to see tears sparkling in her sister's eyes. Immediately, she tensed and cupped Anna's face in her cool hands, concern creasing her brow.

"Anna? Anna, what's wrong?"

The princess smiled and rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm and sniffed. "I…I don't think I've ever been this happy before," she said somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "I just never imagined things would have turned out this way. Three years ago I got you back, and now I have Kristoff. My heart honestly feels like it's going to explode."

"Well, let's leave the exploding of hearts until after your wedding night, all right?" Elsa teased pulling her sister close and resting her chin atop Anna's strawberry blond head, long arms resting on her shoulders.

"I just…all those years we spent apart I dreamt of what it would be like to have you as my sister again. I would stay awake for hours envisioning what we'd be doing when we were older."

Elsa felt a familiar twinge of shame and grief twist in her gut. There wasn't a day that went by she didn't think about her past actions and how much pain she'd caused her family. Sometimes the guilt was enough to make her physically sick, but Anna would always be there, sunny as a summer day, ready to forgive her though the princess was adamant she needed no forgiveness.

"But never in my wildest dreams," Anna continued, "did I imagine we'd be where we are now, and I wouldn't change any of it for the world. I have you back," Anna squeezed her sister tighter, face pressed into the curve of Elsa's throat where her neck and shoulders met, "and I have a wonderful husband. I think there's only one more thing that could make me the happiest person on earth."

"What's that?" Elsa asked quietly, moving a stray lock of Anna's hair back into her braided bun.

"I want you to be happy," Anna whispered.

Elsa pulled back, a bit surprised but more confused than anything. "But I am happy. I have you; what more could I possibly need?"

"I can see the look on your face when you watch couples dance," Anna said pulling away and looking down at the ground as if she were admitting to a crime.

"I…what are you talking about?"

"It's okay you know, feeling the way you do," she prompted looking up at her sister with a small smile, unshed tears making her blue eyes practically glow in the dim light. "It's okay to feel lonely, but you don't have to _be_ alone anymore."

"Anna," Elsa said taking her sister's hands in hers and squeezing them, "I'm not lonely. I have you and Kristoff and Olaf and Sven. I have the family I always wanted, the sister I always needed. Why on earth would I need a man to make me happy when I have all of you?"

Anna didn't have an answer readily on hand, but she could see that, though her sister was smiling, the smile never reached her eyes, and it was her eyes that always told the truth when the queen lied. Elsa was lonely, had been for years even after the Great Freeze.

"I just think—"

"Hey, there you are!"

Both sisters turned to see Kristoff wobble around the corner and totter towards them. He was obviously intoxicated, but not so much that his speaking and basic walking skills were terribly impaired. He weaved once before righting himself and smiled his customary goofy grin.

"I wondered where you two got off to."

"Just some girl time," Anna said helping her husband to the railing. "Are you ready for round three?"

Kristoff made a face and attempted to swat Anna away but only managed to land his hand atop her chest which seemed to please him greatly. "No more dancing. My feet are killing me. I don't know how you royals do it at _every_ party."

"Let's not forget, you too are a royal now, and we just happen to have tough constitutions," Elsa replied straightening. A sly smile began to spread across her lips. "Which is something I thought mountain ice harvesters were famous for, or so you boast on a regular basis."

"Hey, I'll have you know that my constitution is plenty strong. You may have tough feet, but we ice men have bear paws for hands and reindeer backs for shoulders."

"Sounds positively primeval," Elsa teased. "Are there other body parts that are represented by various animals, or does it stop at hands and shoulders?"

Kristoff opened his mouth to retort, but Anna swept in before he could further embarrass himself. Verbal jousting with Elsa was like fighting a hurricane with a kite, so to keep him from stumbling over his words, she locked their lips together. Things progressed quickly from there, hands wandering and their kiss deepening, until Elsa was forced to blast the two with a wave of arctic frost, wrenching two oh-so-satisfying screeches from them both.

"What was that for?" Kristoff said shaking ice from his hair.

"Oh hell, that's cold," Anna hissed bounding from foot to foot, shaking her hands in an attempt to warm them.

"A reminder that you two are still in public," Elsa said with a perfectly arched eyebrow, "and also in the presence of your queen. If you insist on getting…physical…please excuse yourselves to your quarters."

Anna pressed her lips into a thin line, attempting to hide the embarrassment and mirth warring inside her. She seemed to come to a sudden decision and jumped up, dress twirling around her as she spun to look at her husband.

"Our Queen is right," she said stepping away from Kristoff and making for the door. Before she crossed the threshold, she looked back at him over her shoulder and gave the mountain man the most seductively evil look she could muster. "If we're planning on getting _physical_ we should do it where no one can see or _hear_ us."

Elsa groaned and put her head in her hands as Kristoff leapt to his feet, previous intoxication forgotten, and chased after his bride. She watched them go, hand in hand, until they'd disappeared from view.

_Castle life has just gotten a whole lot more interesting…and loud, _she thought making her way back into the ballroom.

Too tired to continue the festivities, and with her sister on her way up to begin her wedding night, Elsa decided it was time to retire and let the castle staff herd what was left of the party guests off to their proper nighttime destinations. She had just relayed this to one of the guards when movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning slowly, she watched with transfixed wonder as the couple twirling on the dance floor finished their last graceful steps, bodies in near perfect sync. Elsa couldn't see who the gentleman dancer was, but the woman she knew to be one of the many visiting daughters of Duke Wellmore. The girl was a fairly decent dancer but was outmatched by the skill and grace of her male partner. To say he was fluid would have given fluidity a poor name. To say he was graceful and bold would have seemed cheap. Elsa had unparalleled access to the best tutors while growing up, and she'd only seen one man with the ability to sweep across a ballroom like that, and he was six years dead. So to see such skill now stopped her in her tracks.

The couple came to a breathless standstill as the song finished with a resonating note. The man bowed deeply at the waist while the woman dipped into a low curtsy before skittering off to rejoin a cluster of woman huddled by the entrance doors. They greeted her with squeals of delight that Elsa could hear from across the ballroom. She rolled her eyes.

_Some of these poor girls are hopeless. Give them one dance and they practically fall to pieces._

Shifting back towards the door, the queen was about to walk away when she noticed the young dancer was making his way towards her. Through the press of bodies, she could see he was smiling and groaned internally.

_No, I will not dance with you, you self-serving peacock of a—_

"Captain…Revel?" Elsa said in stunned surprise as recognition dawned on her. Revel stopped a few feet from her and sketched a deep bow, right hand pressed to his stomach while the other disappeared behind his back. Somehow he made the sharp motion seem smooth, his body clicking into position like a well-oiled clock.

"One and the same, Majesty," the Captain said a little breathlessly, rising from his bow and flashing a broad grin that showed off his pearly white teeth and made his striking green eyes dance.

"I didn't know you were in attendance tonight," Elsa said looking around as if expecting the rest of her guards to suddenly appear in dress attire.

"Princess Anna insisted I come in plain clothes this evening," Revel said looking down at his surprisingly sharp suit and shrugging. "I must say, it feels strange being out of uniform and a part of the crowd for once."

_Lucky you, _Elsa thought looking the Captain over with a critical eye. Indeed, she hadn't recognized him while he was twirling Duke Wellmore's daughter around the dance floor. There had only been a few times the queen had interacted with Revel after the attempt on her life a year ago, and he had always been in uniform: pressed purple jacket and pants with three gold braids hung from his right shoulder to show rank and status. His hair had always been slicked back with oil or hidden under his tall captain's hat, but today he wore it loose, which allowed the chocolate locks to curl a bit in their natural wave. A coal black fitted jacket, matching pants, and moss green undershirt, complemented with a forest green sash, had replaced his uniform, showing off his broad shoulders and slender waist. It was a shock the queen hadn't been expecting. Even more surprising was that Revel seemed to carry himself with a natural ease even while in dress clothes. Sure he seemed as uncomfortable as anyone would be in a starched suit with a collar so stiff it could be used as a shovel, but the Captain disguised his discomfort well, and Elsa felt a new respect for the man beginning to grow.

"You have a natural grace, sir. I've not seen dancing like that in years," Elsa said with an appreciative nod.

"Thank you, Majesty!" Revel beamed, and it was like watching the sun break through a fog bank. "I would ask you to dance, but it appears you are on your way out."

Elsa looked over her shoulder at the surprisingly empty hallway and sighed, her weariness returning. "I was. This has been an eventful day, but I am ready to retire for the evening."

"Please, don't let me keep you from your rest. It was a delight to see you as always, Majesty," Revel said rolling into another perfect bow before snapping back to attention with a broad smile on his face.

Elsa bowed and turned to leave, but for some reason had the uncontrollable urge to glance back as she made her way down the hallway. Revel was still standing in the doorway watching her go, but his jovial smile had slipped into something of a crestfallen frown. The change surprised the queen, but she glimpsed it for only a moment before a body passed in front of the Captain and he was lost from sight.

_That was…odd,_ Elsa thought as she glided through the entrance hall and mounted the spiral stairs leading to the residency wing. She was about to take the final turn towards her room and jumped when an ecstatic cry echoed down the hall.

"Oh for the love of God," she groaned and rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger. "Maybe sleeping in the library would be a safer choice tonight. Maybe moving my room to the other side of the castle would be best," she groused under her breath as another cry echoed down the hall.

The library was exactly where the queen headed, bypassing her sister's room where she and her husband were enjoying their first "official" night together and heading for the blissful solitude of old books and a warm fire.


	2. Chapter 2

Two weeks later, Anna and Kristoff departed for their honeymoon, chartering a small schooner that would take them around the coast so they could visit the different villages and towns currently under Arendelle's flag. The princess was ecstatic about her chance to properly travel the kingdom, but Kristoff seemed less than enthusiastic and just as hesitant as the queen when Anna first suggested her idea a few days after the wedding.

"I'm sorry, but I'm more comfortable walking on solid water, not putting my life in the hands of wood and tar."

"Oh, don't be so overdramatic. That's what I'm supposed to be. Anyway, schooners are lighter and easier to maneuver, and we'll be sticking to the coast, not sailing into the open ocean. The worst that could happen is we run aground and have to spend a few extra days getting home."

"Really? _Really_? Running aground is the _worst_ thing that could happen," Kristoff gaped incredulously. He looked to his sister-in-law for help, knowing he couldn't win this fight alone, but the queen's face was an unreadable mask. If only he knew the trepidation she was feeling at the very thought of her sister and brother-in-law aboard a boat.

Elsa sat behind her dark wood desk that took up a large portion of her small study, hands clasped together so tightly atop a pile of fresh trade notes her knuckles were turning white. Why, in all of God's creation, did Anna want to _sail_ on her honeymoon? It wasn't like there weren't things the newlyweds could do in nearby towns or hamlets that were all easily accessible by carriage or sled. Hell, they could even take a trip to Kristoff's cabin up near North Mountain and visit her ice palace, but Anna was adamant about sailing the coast and wouldn't take no for an answer.

_Damn if she isn't as stubborn as Sven sometimes,_ Elsa thought watching her sister fold her arms across her chest and stare defiantly at her husband who returned her stare with as must gusto as he could manage. They remained like that for a handful of minutes, staring each other down like schoolyard rivals.

"Enough, the both of you," Elsa snapped and instantly regretted her tone of voice. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she turned towards the mountain man, cerulean blue orbs locking on his brown ones. "Kristoff, would you mind letting me speak with my sister alone, please?"

Kristoff glanced uncertainly at Anna, his eyes silently asking if it was all right for him to leave. The princess, jaw clenched so tightly her back teeth had begun to ache, nodded. Her husband rose slowly like a scolded child and made for the door, glancing back only once before stepping out and closing the door behind him with a click.

"Elsa, I know what you're going to say," Anna practically exploded the moment her husband was clear of the room, "and might I remind you that this is _my_ honeymoon and _I_ have a say in—"

"Why sailing, Anna?" Elsa interrupted. "With our family's history with ships, I'd have thought that would have been the last thing on your mind."

Anna blinked, surprised her older sister wasn't raining admonishments down on her. There was genuine concern in Elsa's eyes, and she felt the room start to dip in temperature the longer she remained silent. Anna realized with a flush of guilt that her sister was scared and silently berated herself.

"I've always wanted to sail," she said quietly, looking down at her folded hands in her lap. "You know I love the sea, and I just thought that, since it's been so long since...the accident, maybe I'd finally get to see why Papa couldn't get enough of the ocean. He and Mamma took their honeymoon on a schooner, so I just thought..."

Elsa felt herself deflate, the cramps in her back lessening. It was true their father had a love for the sea. King Agdar spent many summers sailing the coast, visiting towns and villages and bringing back wild tales for his daughters to devour. When they were young, Elsa and Anna used to plan their own voyages, charting the courses on their father's large table map and imagining the different people they would meet and the adventures they would share together. But the dream had died after Elsa went into isolation and their parents' death at sea ten years later. Now Anna wanted to continue the tradition by taking her honeymoon on a ship.

_Leave it to Anna to be the brave one._

"All right," the queen relented with another deep sigh. "I'll charter you two a schooner. Did you have a particular timeline in mind?"

Anna's eyes lit up like lanterns and she rushed over to her sister, sinking to her knees and wrapping her arms around Elsa's waist. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, you don't know how much this means to me!"

"Call it a late wedding gift," Elsa shrugged and tried to push aside the ball of fear nesting in the pit of her stomach like a coiled snake. She could feel it agitating her magic and felt the onset of frost rising into her fingertips. Struggling to keep herself under control, Elsa focused on the warmth of her sister's body wrapped around her waist, letting the heat combat the cold.

"How long did you want to be gone?"

"Two weeks, just like Mama and Papa. One week sailing to wherever we can get to and one week coming back."

"All right, I'll draw up the papers tonight and hire a captain and crew. Give me two days, and the two of you can finally give me the reprieve I desperately need."

Anna's face exploded in a brilliant blush, and Elsa couldn't help but laugh. "Are we really that loud?" she asked in a small voice.

"Dear sister, you could wake the dead. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw grandfather wandering the halls last night looking for the banshee who had awakened him," Elsa teased. Anna groaned and put her face in her hands, burying it in Elsa's lap. The queen ran her long fingers through Anna's unbound hair, tracing the patch where the white streak used to be. It was strange, she didn't even notice it was gone unless she looked.

"Just…please promise me you'll stay safe," Elsa said in a near whisper, bending over to plant a kiss on the back of her sister's head. "I can't bear to lose you to the sea like we lost Mamma and Papa."

Anna snaked her arms around her sister's waist and held her tight, head still resting on her lap. "I promise nothing will happen."

* * *

><p>Three days later the princess and her husband boarded a sharp-looking schooner with crimson sails and a brilliant white hull, waving enthusiastically to Elsa and the few members of the castle staff who had come to watch them depart. It was just after noon when the happy couple made their way up the gangplank, bags having already been brought aboard earlier that morning and their honeymoon cabin prepared for them in advance. The queen stood at the edge of the docks, wind pulling at her modest purple dress and moving her loose braid off her shoulder. She waited until the anchor had been raised and the ship was well beyond the mouth of the fjord before turning and heading back towards the palace, a three guard escort following at a respectful distance. More than once, she stopped and glanced over her shoulder, watching the schooner drift further and further out of sight.<p>

_They'll be fine. They'll sail around the coast, visit a few towns, and traumatize the crew when night falls. They'll be fine. It's only two weeks…_

Oh, how that thought echoed in her mind like a piercing scream in the night, and Elsa stopped dead in her tracks. Hadn't she thought the same thing when watching her parent's ship slip out to sea? A sudden wave of fear crashed over her, and it took everything in her not to ice the docks. Glancing at her hands, Elsa wasn't surprised to see sparks of iridescent blue frost climbing her fingers. She clenched her hands into tight fists, willing the magic back inside.

_Get control. Don't let it control you,_ Elsa thought screwing her face up and focusing. Eventually the ice subsided, her will overriding her fear. Exhaling a shallow breath, the queen continued walking, hoping no one had seen her moment of weakness.

What was left of the day Elsa devoted to getting some much needed paperwork done, signing trade agreements and shipping records until her hands were stained with black ink and cramped sporadically. Kai had brought her a small dinner and a bottle of wine, but it sat untouched on its small silver tray next to her desk. She didn't have much of an appetite, but the wine was looking more and more appealing with each scratch of her signature. Finally giving into temptation, the queen uncorked the bottle, a thirty year vintage if her tired eyes were reading the label correctly, and let the dark liquid slosh into the provided wine glass. Slowly, the natural aromas of aged berries, smoky oak, and vanilla began to fill the room as the bottle and glass breathed. After a few more seconds, Elsa took a long sip and sighed happily. Sometimes a glass of good wine was all it took to push the day's stresses away and allow her a moment's reprieve.

She'd never been one for alcohol, even after the Great Freeze. The queen had seen firsthand what too much alcohol consumption could do to a person, how it left them without control of their body or actions, and with a secret that could destroy the kingdom if her guard slipped for only a moment, her younger self had shied away from the beverage as much as possible. Still, there were times she couldn't get away with drinking water, and Elsa had found she liked the taste of dark red wine over many other types of liquors. It wasn't until recently that she had begun drinking a glass every couple of days, usually while mulling over paperwork, just to help take the edge off.

Taking another long pull from her glass, Elsa moved over to the balcony doors and pulled them open. The sun had set hours ago, mostly without her noticing, and the night air was blissfully cool against her skin. Judging by the clock on her nearest bookshelf, it was well past midnight. The stars were shining brightly overhead as she moved to the balcony's edge and set her glass down, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the railing.

_I wonder how far out Anna and Kristoff are,_ she thought looking out over her kingdom and watching the light from hundreds of windows twinkle below her. Suddenly, she had the uncontrollable urge to see the sea, to track the waves with her eyes and watch the clouds just to be sure things were all right. It wasn't as if she could control the weather, but she had to be sure. Spinning away from the balcony, half-empty wine glass plucked from the railing and deposited back on the silver tray, she grabbed one of the thin dark cloaks she always kept on hand and threw it over her shoulders, hood pulled over her head to hide her distinctive hair.

She wasn't necessarily sneaking out. Since the castle and kingdom were hers by right of rule, the queen could come and go as she pleased, but after the attempt on her life a year ago the amount of security around the castle had increased significantly. Elsa was usually followed by an armed escort whenever she ventured outside the castle grounds. It had been irritating, at first, having three metal clad guards clunking after her, pushing civilians out of her way in order to maintain a wide perimeter around her. More than once, Elsa had openly snapped at the men, beckoning whoever needed to speak to her to come closer and not caring about the potential consequences. She guessed that was another change that had taken place after the assassination attempt. Her level of personal fear had lessened considerably. She still worried over her family, that anxiety would never go away, but fear for her own personal safety just wasn't as prevalent anymore. She'd faced death and lived and became stronger for it. But no matter her feelings, the royal guards' entire purpose was to keep their queen safe from harm at any costs, or so Captain Revel had said when she demanded her escort disband the first time they'd accompanied her.

"You are the Queen, Majesty, and we are sworn to protect you. I'm sorry if my escort is inconvenient, but it is necessary. After what happened during the spring festival—"

"Do not remind me what happened, Captain. I remember better than most," Elsa had seethed in his office, indignant rage making her shoulders burn and palms itch with frost.

"Of course, Majesty, but it is still a good idea for you to have an escort."

"And if I disband your escort, order your men and _you_ to stand down, what will you do? Will you defy my wishes and hide behind the guise that you know what's best for me?" Elsa barked and instantly regretted her words because she realized where her anger was coming from. This all stemmed back to her parents. They'd done what they had thought was best for their child which turned out to be the worst thing.

"We will always do as ordered, Majesty. _I_ will do as ordered," Revel replied in a level voice that barely hid his frustration, "but I hope you will see reason. We only want your safety and the safety of the Princess." Then the Captain had taken a risk and raised his eyes, green gems locking on Elsa's cerulean orbs. "But please, do not assume that my guards, or myself personally, would ever presume to tell you what is best for you and your family. We are here to protect, not council."

Elsa felt as if she'd been slapped and felt her face reddening. Of course Revel was right, damn him. If she ordered the escort disbanded he would obey her without hesitation like any other loyal subject, but that wasn't the right course of action to take. She saw the benefit of the escort, just hated how vulnerable it made her look.

"Forgive me, Captain. I am not in the right frame of mind at the moment," Elsa said folding her hands in front of her and dipping her head slightly. "Of course you are correct, and I would never presume to tell you how to do your job. Please, continue the escort, but inform your men they are not to engage civilians unless they pose a direct threat to me or my family, understood?"

"Of course, Majesty. I will tell my men to be as discreet as possible."

Elsa had taken her leave then, feeling for all the world like the biggest fool in the kingdom for taking out her frustrations on the castle staff.

But that had been almost a year ago, and Elsa had come to tolerate her escort, ignoring them as best she could when she made trips into town or to the docks. Tonight, however, she would not be leaving the castle but still wanted a level of privacy she couldn't get if the patrol guards noticed she was walking the parapets.

Slipping out the servants' door located just left of the Great Hall, the queen padded down the long hallway, burgundy carpet unrolling under her slippered feet like a velvety tongue, and took the first corner on her right. A set of double doors awaited her which would lead to a small windowless chamber with black marble floors. That chamber would lead to another carpeted hallway, this one made of the same sand-colored stone of the perimeter wall. Elsa slid through the final hallway like a phantom and was relieved to see that the guard usually stationed next to the parapet door wasn't at his post. She'd timed it perfectly. Carefully opening the heavy wooden door, Elsa moved into the final antechamber before stepping out into the open air of the southernmost perimeter wall.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness. The antechamber housed a single bright lantern hung from a wrought iron hook which effectively made her night blind the second she'd stepped past it, but eventually she grew accustomed to the darkness and glided along the wall, hands trailing the rough stone as she skirted the pools of light cast by more hanging lanterns.

The parapets were the only place in the entire kingdom, save for the Overlook and her ice castle, where the queen felt entirely unrestricted. A sheer thirty foot drop on either side of the wall made it feel as if she were walking on a sky bridge that slowly climbed the mountain side like the back of a massive stone wyvern. Rolling gusts of wind broke over the left side of the wall, pulling at her cloak until it flapped beside her like a flag. Elsa leaned into the roaring air and felt a wild smile split her face. As the gust died down, she looked out over the fjord, song soft waves lapping the rocky shore below like a lullaby.

_Tonight everything seems right with the world, _Elsa thought continuing down the long stretch of stone walkway.

She didn't see him at first, his dark clothes effectively blending him in with the shadows as seamlessly as if he were a phantom, but the queen thought she'd heard someone speaking and slowed her stroll. Edging closer, the outline of a man leaning against the perimeter railing came into focus. The glint of something metal flashed in the moonlight, and Elsa froze, heart in her throat, her mind suddenly flashing back to that day at the spring festival when a flash of metal had been her only warning that a dagger was about to slide under her ribs. The man mumbled something, a prayer perhaps, quickly followed by the sound of liquid being poured from a container, and Elsa mentally exhaled.

_Well, I don't think he's going to stab me to death with a flask,_ she thought relaxing fractionally, and glanced over her shoulder at the entrance door yards behind her. There were really only two courses of action that could be taken at this moment. Either the queen could turn and walk away or announce her presence, effectively ending her private nighttime walk. Thinking it best to play it safe, Elsa turned but must have made some type of sound because the man raised his head, startled.

"Majesty?"

Elsa cursed under her breath, wondering what had given her away. The light flapping of her hood against her shoulder blades provided an answer.

_Betrayed by the wind, isn't that ironic._

The man fumbled with what sounded like a box of matches seconds before a tiny flame appeared in an equally small lantern, illuminating the space between the two in weak orange light. It was then that Elsa saw who was with her on the parapets and sighed inwardly.

"Good evening, Captain Revel."

"Likewise, Majesty," Revel said ducking into a shallow bow. His eyebrows creased with confusion, and she saw his quick smile disappear into a frown. "Why are you up here?"

"I didn't realize I needed a reason to wander my castle," Elsa said with a slight raise of her chin. Revel winced and looked away.

"My apologies; that came out wrong. I meant to ask, why are you up here at such a late hour? Is everything all right?"

"I came to enjoy the night air," she said offhandedly, not willing to divulge the real reason she was wandering the castle after midnight in a dark cloak. Revel took her answer with a nod. Elsa slowly closed the distance between them and caught the scent of strong brandy when the wind shifted. "Have you been drinking?"

Revel was quiet for a moment before nodding silently, returning to his lean against the railing and looking out over the fjord with far away eyes.

"Yes," he sighed and seemed to deflate like a water skin with a hole in it. Judging by the slump of his shoulders, he wasn't at all proud of the fact.

"May I ask why my guard captain has taken to drinking on the parapets alone in the dark?" Elsa didn't know why it mattered, why she even cared, but something about the sad set of his face and the haunted look in his eyes piqued her curiosity. It didn't even cross her mind to ask whether or not he was still on shift. The queen knew the Captain was a professional man and would never break the covenant and commandments all the guards lived by.

"Forgive me, but it's a private matter, Majesty," Revel said even more quietly.

Elsa sighed and leaned against the parapet as well, elbows scraping the rough stone. The waters of the fjord were calm tonight, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A fat half-moon hung lazily in the deep blue-black heavens, turning the rippling water a brilliant silver. For a long while the two stood in a fragile silence, the sound of nature the only voice heard circling them.

"How long has it been?" Elsa asked quietly, closing her eyes as the wind buffeted her and cooled her skin. Revel shifted around to look at her, a guarded look on his face.

"I'm not sure I follow, Majesty."

"You were pouring libations when I walked up on you. It took me a minute to puzzle it out. I know that people only pour for lost loved ones."

Revel flinched and looked down at his folded hands, silver flask sitting next to his right elbow. How much brandy had he had tonight? The flask had to be three quarters of the way empty, but he hardly felt the effects of the alcohol. His head was still too achingly clear. He should have expected Elsa to understand what he'd been doing. She hid a razor sharp intelligence behind her arctic beauty, but hearing someone name the act out loud made him feel foolish.

"Today is the fifteen year anniversary of my father's death," Revel said in a voice so laden with grief Elsa felt her heart ache and silently berated herself for even asking.

_People can have secrets too. Just because I'm queen doesn't mean I'm privy to them._

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I shouldn't have pried. I'll leave you to your thoughts and prayers." Elsa turned to leave but felt a warm hand brush hers. Curiously, she looked down and found the Captain's fingers laying over top hers. Revel seemed to realize what he'd done a half second after Elsa and snatched his hand away, an expression of utter horror on his face.

"Forgive me, Majesty. I didn't mean…perhaps I've had too much to drink tonight. That was out of line, and I humbly apologize. My manners are deplorable this evening."

"It's all right, Captain," Elsa said trying not to roll her eyes. Why was it that whenever anyone accidentally bumped, nudged, or touched her they immediately kowtowed as if she were going to freeze them on the spot? It was actually quite humbling knowing her presence was appreciated and needed, royal formality be damned.

"No, Majesty, it's not. I was out of line to—"

"I will let you know if you've crossed a boundary," Elsa said with a sideways smile. Revel relaxed fractionally, his unease still plainly visible in the set of his shoulders and how tightly he clenched his fists in front of him.

"If _I'm_ not being to bold, how did he die?" the queen asked returning to her lean against the parapet. For some odd reason, she felt comfortable around the Captain. Perhaps because they were acquaintances, or because she knew how highly Anna spoke about him. For whatever the reason, she didn't feel the need to be as guarded as she did around most other people.

"He was murdered…" Revel replied in the dry voice of a man who had shed so many tears over the years he'd become numb.

Elsa felt a shock work through her system as she recognized his tone, recognized the deadness in his voice and eyes. Her heart went out to him. Here was a man who could identify with the pain of her past, with the fear and guilt and anger she still felt in the deepest, darkest depths of her soul. Just the knowledge of there being a kindred spirit so close to her made her feel giddy. However, none of this showed on her face. Instead there was genuine sadness for Revel's loss.

"I'm so sorry," was all she could say, and it made her slightly angry. How comforting were those three words really when spoken to a person who'd lost someone precious to them? It was an almost automatic response when faced with something unpleasant. A mumbled 'I'm sorry' and that was somehow supposed to be a salve to the pain, but really it was just a cover for the person speaking. It made them feel like they were doing something productive, like they were actually helping the wounded party when in reality it was just a cover. At least, that's how Elsa saw it, and she hated that she too participated in the charade.

Revel nodded like he understood, like her words meant something, but she knew otherwise and grew quiet, watching the cold stars twinkle in an endless sky as the half-moon made its lazy journey across the heavens. After a while, Revel let out what sounded like something between a laugh and a strangled hiccup, face nearly hidden in shadow as the small candle set between them dwindled.

"You'd think that after fifteen years the pain would somehow be less. I come up here every year on the anniversary and pour a drink for him into the sea. I know where he is he can't partake in my libation, but it somehow makes his loss seem somehow…easier to manage." Revel turned to look at the queen, and she saw the unshed tears reflected in his eye by the light of the dying candle. "I'm sorry, Majesty. This isn't pleasant conversational material."

"May I be candid with you, Captain?" Elsa asked without pulling her gaze away from the fjord.

"Of course."

"The pain of my parent's death is still very difficult for me to bear sometimes, especially on the anniversary. The ice sculptures I made for them last year was my first real step towards healing, but there are days where just the memory of them aches so keenly I can barely stand it. I understand your pain, and my heart goes out to you. The loss of a parent isn't something easily dealt with, and I hope someday soon you'll find the peace you've been searching for."

Revel looked genuinely shocked by her words. He hadn't known what to expect when he'd started babbling, the words vomiting out of his mouth involuntarily, but it certainly wasn't sympathy or understanding. He cleared his throat a number of times before he found his voice again.

"Thank you, Majesty." Revel was silent for a few moments before he could work up the courage to say more. "May I ask _you_ a question?"

"Does it pertain to courtly happenings or the noise complaint coming from the residency wing?" Elsa asked with as much seriousness as she could muster, which wasn't much since she couldn't fight the grin off her face.

"I…there's been a noise complaint?"

"Newlywed issues," Elsa explained with a grave nod. Revel finally realized what she was alluding to and chuckled.

"Ah, and here I thought an animal had escaped into the castle again without my knowledge."

"If you listen to how Kristoff describes his 'constitutions' he has quite a few animalistic body parts," Elsa laughed. Revel seemed at a loss for words which only made the queen smile more. "Sorry, inside joke. What were you going to ask?"

"Oh, yes, um… Again, forgive me if I'm being too bold but, why is it you feel the need to wander the castle grounds during early morning hours?"

"And what makes you think I do?"

"Majesty," Revel slightly cocked his eyebrow, "there are only two reasons a black-cloaked figure would be seen wandering the grounds at night. One, some nefarious individual has somehow gotten past my patrols, or two, a certain queen insists on making certain my patrols are kept sharp by guising herself like said nefarious individual."

Elsa felt the corners of her lips turn up. _So the Captain does have some wit to him._

"It's the latter of the two, I'm afraid," Elsa exhaled with a nonchalant shrug. "I feel your skills at command are lacking, so I disguise myself as various persons and wander at night waiting to be apprehended or shot. It's a game really, seeing how many of your men I can startle before skittering back into the darkness while cackling like some woodland sorceress."

"Ah, I see," Revel said unable to hide his smile. Elsa smiled too seeing the sadness break from his face. "Well, that makes much more sense. I'll be certain to tell my men not to shoot said dark-cloaked figure if they should see it skittering around the halls."

"Thank you. I'd prefer not to die with a crossbow bolt through my chest," Elsa chuckled and moved away from the edge of the parapet. "Well, I'm afraid the hour grows late, Captain, and duties await me on the morrow. If you'll excuse me," she ducked into a shallow bow, one which Revel returned.

"If you'd like, Majesty, I could escort you to your chambers."

A wicked grin slashed across Elsa's face and she folded her arms against her chest. "Will you now, Captain? And what will you do once you've gotten me to my room, pray tell."

Revel didn't pick up on her meaning until a half-heartbeat later and flushed a brilliant scarlet red. The queen knew she was being inappropriate but somehow couldn't bring herself to care.

"That's not at all what I meant," Revel mumbled.

"I know, Captain, forgive me. I fear my sister's snark is rubbing off on me. If you feel the need to escort me, I won't stop you and would even enjoy the company."

"If you're certain, I wouldn't want—"

"My evenings have become quite empty now that Anna and Kristoff are gone, so having an excuse to pull myself away from hours of endless work would be greatly appreciated," Elsa said moving towards the entrance door at a leisurely stroll. Revel jogged to catch up with her, stowing his flask back inside the folds of his dark coat, a half-smile pulling at the corner of his lips.


	3. Chapter 3

It quickly became a nightly ritual while Anna and Kristoff were away. Elsa would leave her study or the library sometime around midnight and meet Revel on the parapets where they would engage in light conversation or walk in complete silence depending on the day. The queen was beginning to discover that the Captain was a naturally quiet individual, much like herself, perpetually thinking unless drawn into conversation. His introversion was comfortable to be around since the Elsa didn't feel the pressing need to find things to talk about; just letting her feet wander where they would. Eventually Revel began to thaw, and their conversations grew deeper and less superficial.

"So, you came to Arendelle when you were nineteen and joined the castle guard a year later?" Elsa asked as they made their way down the perimeter wall at a lazy stroll, a light mist pricking the air with moisture.

"I did. After my father's death, there really wasn't a reason to remain at home. My mother died years earlier when a flux swept through our village, so I no longer had anything keeping me there. Arendelle is the largest kingdom, so I naturally migrated here looking for work. For a while I was a dock worker until a position in the guards opened up, in which case the rest is history."

"You didn't have any other family in your village?"

Revel went quiet which Elsa had come to recognize was the Captain delving into his thoughts. It happened quite a few times during their nightly discussions. She'd ask a question and Revel would stop talking entirely, shifting his gaze to the fjord or looking out over the kingdom with far away eyes. Sometimes she could catch glimpses of raw emotion beneath his carefully placed mask, the barest hint of sadness, or anger, or regret, or happiness but always he returned to himself and answered her question to the best of his ability. The queen was under no disillusion that the Captain had secrets he didn't want her knowing about, and sometimes his answers were veiled or vague.

"I had two brothers. After father's death we…grew apart in the worst ways."

Elsa nodded but didn't press the matter of family. She knew all too well what it felt like pushing a sibling away and didn't want the Captain to have to relive that pain again.

"So if you were a dock worker for a year, what made you want to become a guard?"

By now the two had climbed as high as they could, two hundred or so feet above Arendelle kingdom. This high and the wind was a constant companion, pulling and pushing the two with strong hands. More than once Elsa had to brace herself against the perimeter wall to keep from toppling over the side. Below she could see the fogbank that had overtaken her kingdom only a few minutes ago, thick clouds creeping along the ground as they rolled in from the sea, turning lantern and window light into smothered specks of gold.

"A couple of reasons. When I was younger, I would spend a majority of my day watching the guards in my village train. Because of where I lived at the time, I could sit on the wall surrounding my home and watch the men go through drills in the castle courtyard. I'd try to emulate them and quickly found that I had a knack for swordplay. Having two brothers, I was also fairly decent at grappling. My father had been against me learning combat, in his mind I needed to be more concerned about my studies, but, being a rambunctious twelve year old, I wouldn't listen and snuck out to train with a few guards willing to teach me."

_Ah, so that's why Anna has such a like for you, Captain,_ Elsa thought, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. _Birds of a feather._

"It was just fun and games while I was young, but after father's death something changed within me," Revel said and his voice trailed off. Unnoticing, he ran a hand through his thick wavy hair, the moisture in the air clinging to his chocolate locks and gluing them loosely against his scalp. Why did he have this compulsion to talk so freely about his past with the queen? He could have stopped at any time, could have skirted her questions, but he had such a powerful feeling of relief and release when speaking to her it was hard to stop. It was strange yet comforting at the same time. He'd spent so many years submerging himself in his training and climbing the political ladder until he'd been named Captain in his twenty fifth year, a feat not done in the Arendelle guard in at least fifty years, and through it all no one had bothered to ask where he'd come from or why he wanted to be a guard so badly.

Elsa stopped walking a little ways away from Revel after noticing he'd stopped. Slowly she turned and watched him for a few silent moments as he stared out over the fog-consumed city, eyes once again distant. "You don't have to talk about this with me, you know."

"Pardon?" Revel looked up as if surfacing from a dream. "Apologies, I sometimes get lost in my thoughts."

"Believe me, I know the feeling," Elsa said walking back to him but maintaining a respectful distance. "I also know that memories can be painful things to recall, so don't feel pressured into telling me things."

"Thank you, Majesty. You are too kind, but what I was going to say," Revel continued with a slow breath, "was after my father's death I had this compulsion to never feel helpless again. He'd been stabbed coming home from an event in the village, dying only feet from our home. I blamed myself for his death because I was meant to accompany him that evening but had snuck out to train instead. If I had been there, I could have protected him, I could have done _something_. So I decided a week after his burial that I would never feel that level of helplessness again. I wanted to protect people from evil men like the man who murdered my father."

Elsa could practically feel the vehemence rolling from the Captain's words, each syllable dripping with venom. He was angry, at both himself and the man responsible for his father's death, but there was more. Revel seemed to blame himself for the death entirely. His eyes twinkled in the dim light of the lantern he carried in his hand, anger making the striking green color glint like hard gems. Elsa reached out without realizing it and put a hand on his shoulder, mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Justice is a fickle thing, Captain, but I believe the man responsible for your father's death will meet an ugly demise as befitting his actions."

A new emotion crossed the Captain's face, and not one the young queen had expected to see. Sadness mixed with a little bit of fear, but they were gone a heartbeat later, replaced with a soft smile that hardly reached his eyes.

"I didn't know a member of the royal family would believe in Karma."

Elsa snorted and continued walking back towards entrance door two hundred yards away, cloak pulled tight over her shoulders as the wind picked up. "Karma, fate, circumstance, they are all the same thing, aren't they?"

"It's just a very Eastern way of thinking. Wouldn't it be better to say that God will pass judgment on the man upon the moment of his death?"

It was Elsa's turn to stop walking, and she turned to face the Captain. "I believe we are judged in the here and now for the sins we commit in the here and now, and that our hell is of our making. Evil men receive their just rewards as surely as good men, and we do not need to wait on a deity to pass judgment until the moment of death."

Revel stood very still, hands at his side, mouth suddenly, achingly dry. "Isn't that…isn't that heresy, Majesty?"

Elsa regarded him with a cool stare that seemed to piece his flesh and bone, her cerulean blue orbs practically glowing in the darkness. The Captain felt the wind pick up again but there was a bite to it now, a bitter chill swirling around him like a dervish, and he shivered, pulling his cloak closed in an attempt to combat the cold. Somehow he knew Elsa was doing this, and it made the fear nestled in the pit of his stomach squirm. He'd made her angry.

"Is it heresy to believe that when the sun sets the moon will rise?"

"No, Majesty," Revel said in a small voice. He could see his breath hovering in front of his mouth with each exhale.

"Is it heresy to believe that when the full moon rises the tides will pull back?"

"No, Majesty."

"Then it is not heresy to believe that when a man commits a heinous crime he will find justice in this life as well as in the afterlife, but it will come from this life first. The same for a good man. He will be rewarded in this life first, though not necessarily in the ways he expects."

"Forgive me, Majesty. I didn't mean to offend you."

Elsa took a breath and reined in her arctic magic like a carriage driver pulling hard on a team of horses. She knew Revel hadn't meant to anger her, but the very word heresy put such a fear in the queen she instantly reacted as if being held at knife point. It had been a terrifying subject taught by her tutors and bishop Arren during her younger years. Heretics were often rooted out and tortured to death just because they thought differently from the Church, and growing up with supernatural powers that could very easily be viewed, through a cold religious eye, as a curse from the devil himself, Elsa had sought to make herself as pious as possible. It was just another mask she kept in place while being molded to fit the role of queen. In the privacy of her mind, she oftentimes disagreed with the Church's philosophies and fundamentals, using her time in the library to research other religions and gleaning wisdom from other religious affiliates. It was heretical work and a secret she would never divulge to anyone, even her sister.

"It's all right, Captain," Elsa said icily and turned back towards the entrance door. Revel walked a few steps behind, berating himself for being perhaps the biggest fool in Arendelle. He'd almost accused the queen of being a heretic, a crime, should she view it that way, that could very easily lead to his beheading. Swallowing the growing lump in his throat, he followed the queen until they reached the entrance door and pulled it open for her, eyes downcast as she glided by.

"Good night, Majesty."

"Good night, Captain," Elsa said over her shoulder and disappeared through the antechamber door without a backwards glance. Revel let out a long sigh and closed the parapet door and leaned against it, eyes cast towards the heavens. Despite the fog swallowing the city, a few cold stars winked at him from between the rolling clouds, and he let out another long sigh, the cold finally leaving him.

"Ah father, are you laughing at me right now? You always said I had a way with words."

* * *

><p>The next afternoon a schooner with crimson sails and a white hull docked in Arendelle harbor, and Elsa couldn't have been more relieved or happy to see the small ship bouncing on the waves as the small crew lashed the sails and lowered the gangplank. Two weeks had practically flown by without her noticing. With her nightly walks with Revel to look forward to, the days had sped by, the endless loads of paperwork and meetings nothing more than a mild irritation now that she had something to occupy her evenings. But after her behavior last night, with how she'd left the Captain, Elsa didn't know if she could face him again. She knew she shouldn't have gotten angry, but fear had once again ruined a perfectly pleasant evening. Sighing inwardly, the queen watched from the end of the dock as Anna and Kristoff emerged from the ship and made their way towards her.<p>

Kristoff raised a hand in greeting, but Anna did not. Elsa felt a frown crease her forehead as she watched the newlyweds draw near. Her sister looked thinner somehow, and her skin had an ashy grey pallor to it. The queen also noticed that Kristoff had his left arm snaked around her waist as if he were holding her up, and Elsa's puzzlement turned to concern.

"Ah, there's nothing better than having familiar soil under my feet. Well, dock wood, but you know what I mean," Kristoff said coming to stand in front of Elsa. His smile was quick and a little forced as he maintained his grip on Anna.

"I'm glad to see that the two of you made it back in one piece," Elsa said hugging her brother-in-law before turning to her little sister. "Anna, what's wrong? You don't look well."

"I'm fine," the princess said with a casual wave of her hand.

"She's been sick for three days," Kristoff said by way of answer when Elsa shot him questioning a look. "We don't know if it was something she ate or something she picked up while traveling; though I told you not to eat that market fish, but you wouldn't listen."

"There was nothing wrong with the fish," Anna groaned.

"It was a fish with the head of a sheep! Anything that has mixed animal parts is highly suspicious!"

Anna opened her mouth to retort when suddenly her face lost its color and she shoved Kristoff aside, running for the edge of the dock where the ship bumped the wood as the waves rolled under it. One hand against the white hull, the young princess vomited into the harbor.

"I swear to God, I've got nothing in my system to throw up anymore," Anna gasped leaning against the hull, sweat prickling her pale brow. Elsa stepped next to her and rubbed her back gently, letting her cool hands sooth Anna's fevered skin. Again the young princess heaved into the harbor but nothing came up but stomach bile.

"You're going to see the Physician immediately," the queen said snaking an arm around her little sister's shoulders and guiding her away once the vomiting had stopped. She expected Anna to put up a fight, to grouse or pout, but the princess only nodded weakly and allowed herself to be led away. Elsa ordered her sister and Kristoff's things to be brought into the Great Hall and left the crew to handle the rest. It didn't take long to reach the medical wing of the castle, and already there was a white clad apprentice waiting for the royal sisters when they arrived.

"Good afternoon, Majesties," the young woman said in a low curtsey. "Physician Brynja was notified by the schooner captain of Princess Anna's condition. She's already waiting to receive you."

"Very good," Elsa said stepping away from Anna after a quick hug. "I'll be waiting in my study."

Anna nodded weakly and followed the apprentice through a set of low green doors, head down and shoulders slumped. Elsa watched her go with a mix of concern and anxiety warring in her stomach.

The princess had never been a sickly child, the hours she spent outside in the sunlight strengthening her body against most illnesses. There had only been one instance Elsa remembered when the princess had become ill enough for the Physician to be called. Anna had come down with a nasty flu and had collapsed during one of her riding lessons, very nearly cracking her skull open when she'd fallen from the horse's back. Elsa remembered seeing the white clad apprentices race past the dining room where she was studying with her language tutor one spring afternoon. They returned a few minutes later with Anna on a cloth stretcher, her tiny hand dangling over the edge as they made for the medical wing. Elsa jumped up from her studies and bumped into her father as she swung around the corner.

"They say she may have hit her head, but it's the fever that has them worried."

Elsa had wrung her gloved hands as she watched the cluster of apprentices disappear from sight, taking her sister with them. She could feel the cold starting to seep into her hands and for once wished she could do something with her magic. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to fight the fever. But no, her powers could only harm, and she pushed the ridiculous idea from her mind.

Still, her fear wasn't entirely rooted enough to keep the young queen-to-be from sneaking out of her room that night and padding down to Anna's quarters, opening her door without making a sound. Her little sister lay sleeping in her bed, a white bandage wrapped around her head. Elsa approached cautiously, making sure not to step on any floorboards that might creak, and stood next to her sister's bed. She could see the flush of fever in her little Anna's cheeks and sheen of sweat coating much of her exposed skin.

"I'm so sorry, Anna," Elsa whispered, gloved fingers curling into the comforter. The little princess mumbled in her sleep, face scrunched in what could have been a pained expression, a small whimper escaping her parted lips. Biting her lip, Elsa looked over her shoulder just to make sure no one was there before slipping off her gloves and calling her magic into her hands. A small ball of iridescent blue appeared at the center of her palm, hovering ever so slightly above her skin on a pillow of super cold air. With the flick of her wrist the ball shot skyward a few feet before exploding in a shower of blue and white sparks, arctic air washing over the two sisters. Elsa held her breath, not daring to breathe in case it tipped the balance of her power and suddenly froze Anna like she feared, but the little princess seemed to instantly relax and shifted into a more comfortable position.

"I love you, Anna," Elsa whispered, planting a kiss on the girl's now cool cheek and quickly moved out of the room before someone caught her. Before she shut the door, she heard Anna shift again.

"Love you too, Elsa," the little princess slurred, but whether it was in answer to a dream or the young queen-to-be's words was left unknown.

Elsa quickly shut the door and scrambled back to her room. She was never able to work up the courage to help her sister like that again, but it was one of the few warm memories she had of her childhood while locked away in seclusion.

Watching Anna disappear behind the green doors of the medical wing, Elsa felt the sudden urge to reach out and help her sister in any way possible, whether it be magical or otherwise.

_She's in good hands. Let the professionals do their jobs,_ she thought and forced herself to leave the wing and return to her study. There would be no work getting done today, she could already tell, but at least here she could pace without anyone seeing.

Two hours later a knock sounded at her door, and Elsa beckoned whoever was there to enter. She'd finally settled down enough to sign a few treaties and looked up from her papers as Anna walked in. The young princess looked as if she were in a daze, eyes glassy and distant. Elsa rose slowly, returning her quill pen to its holder.

"What did the Physician say?"

Anna shuffled towards the low couch against the far wall as if not hearing her sister. She was just about to pass the first wingback chair in front of the fireplace when her knees buckled and she stumbled. Elsa rushed to her side, nearly knocking over her chair in her haste.

"Anna, what's wrong? What did she say?" The queen was growing more panicked by the minute and felt the room's temperature dip. She guided her sister to the couch and helped her sit, sinking down in front of her. "Anna, what did she say?"

"I'm pregnant," the princess whispered, right hand clutching the front of her dress. Her words seemed to stir her from her stupor, and she looked up at her older sister, tears in her eyes. "Elsa, I'm pregnant."

The queen rocked back on her heels as if struck, eyebrows shooting up into her hairline. All she could think of was, _Already? It's only been a few weeks,_ but what came out instead was, "With what?"

Anna's mouth fell open as she quickly regained some semblance of control over herself. "A reindeer baby, didn't you know? Sven is going to be a proud father. What do you mean 'with what'? A baby, Elsa. A human baby!"

"That's not what I…Anna are they sure?"

"Physician Brynja did a number of tests, did them twice actually, and they all came back positive. I'm going to have a baby," Anna said putting a hand gently on her stomach. Suddenly a smile lit her face, and tears rolled from her eyes. "Oh Elsa, Kristoff and I are going to have a baby!"

The queen smiled with her sister despite a whole new war of emotions taking place inside her. Anna was pregnant; the Frosberg line was safe and would continue with her children. That was good wasn't it? Isn't that what any ruling monarch wanted, the endless continuation of their line? If so, then why did she feel a sudden thrill of fear at the idea of their family expanding?

_There's going to be a child in this castle…a child around _me.

Then a more sinister thought.

_Oh god, what if it turns out to _be_ like me? What if the baby has powers? Mother and Father never did explain why I was born the way I was, but it had something to do with the bloodline. What if it continues with Anna's baby?_

"Elsa, are you listening to me?"

The queen shook herself, trying to be rid herself of the haunting thoughts pulling at her mind. "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts again."

"You always do that when you're worried about something. What is it?"

_Damn if you aren't sharp as a razor sometimes,_ Elsa sighed inwardly.

Three years of being in each other's near constant presence had taught the royal sisters how to spot subtle signs of emotional or physical trouble. Anna was like an open book for Elsa, her mannerisms and ticks easy to spot since her sister wore her heart on her sleeve. She knew when she was angry, or scared, or happy by just looking at the set of her shoulders and the way she expressed herself through her eyes. But the queen had been a difficult puzzle for the princess to crack at first. Eventually, Anna had found a chink in her sister's armor and slowly began peeling back the layers until she could read her sister as clearly as Elsa could read her. It all came down to shifts in her conversation, or dead spots if she retreated into her mind, the way she clenched her hands and the set of her jaw. And right now, Anna could tell Elsa was scared.

Knowing that denial of the princess's inquiry would lead to more prying, Elsa sighed and took her sister's hands in hers. "First let me say that I'm so happy for you. You always talked about having a big family, and here you are starting one, and with the man of your dreams no less. Papa would be so happy right now, and I think Mama would be in tears. This is the start of your life, Anna, and I'm so happy I can be a part of it."

Anna's smile was like sunshine, and Elsa reveled in it. But then it faded as the young princess's brow creased, her original question still hanging in the air between them. "There's a 'but' in there somewhere, I can feel it."

"Anna, what if the baby turns out to be like me?" Elsa said fighting to get her words out. "We don't know how the bloodline works. It skipped you; maybe it'll begin again with your baby."

"We don't know if your powers have anything to _do_ with the Frosberg bloodline," Anna said squeezing her sister's hands tightly. Yes, it was a fear the princess had when it came to having children, but it wasn't something she couldn't handle. She'd decided a long time ago, when she and Kristoff had begun seriously courting, that if they did make a child together and it was born with powers she wouldn't go the route her parents had and close it off from society. The child would be raised to accept their abilities and taught how to use them through sheer determination and force of will. The child would never, for a minute, be lead to believe their differences made them a monster or a freak.

"But it had to come from somewhere. Anna, how will you raise—"

"With love and acceptance," Anna interjected and took her sister's face in her hands. Elsa's skin was so cold it began to numb her palms, but Anna refused to let go, refused to let her sister sink further into her fears. This was a happy moment, and they would share it together.

"I won't make the same mistakes Mama and Papa did with you. I know now what they did was wrong, and a part of me hates them for it."

"Don't say that—"

"No, it's true. What they did was the worst thing a parent could have done. I can't remember the night when they took me to the trolls, but, from what you've described to me, they both were told that you needed to learn to control your powers. Fear was what would destroy you, and their fear very nearly did. I won't make that mistake with this little one. If he or she is born with powers like yours we will teach them how to control it and how to embrace it. It won't be a stain or a sin; it'll just be a natural part of them."

Elsa felt tears well in her eyes and pulled her sister close. Sometimes Anna could be the most annoying, brash, hot tempered, defiant person in all of Arendelle, but sometimes, like during moments like these, the young queen caught a glimpse of a deep-rooted wisdom dwelling in her sister's soul. She could say the most profound things and it would take Elsa's breath away, like it was doing now.

"I love you, Anna," Elsa said squeezing her sister as tightly as she could. Anna returned the embrace, nuzzling into the crook of the queen's neck.

"I love you too, Elsa." Then more quietly, "Do you remember when I told you at the wedding reception that it was the happiest day of my life?"

Elsa nodded.

"Well I was wrong. I think this moment is the happiest."

Elsa smiled and pressed her forehead against Anna's, feeling the warmth of her sister wash over her. "Do you have any names already picked out?"

Anna laughed and pulled back. "I _just_ found out."

"Please," the queen said rolling her eyes, "you used to name every frog in the castle fountains. I can't believe you've never thought about baby names."

"Maybe I have," Anna said making a face at her sister. A sudden knock at the door made the two turn, and Kristoff poked his head in a second later.

"There you are. I went to the medical wing, but they said you'd already left." He walked into the study and shut the door behind him, noticing for the first time the tears on his wife and sister-in-law's face. "What's going on?"

Elsa cleared her throat and stood, smoothing out the fabric of her dress with one hand while wiping the line of tears from her face with the other.

"I'll leave the two of you alone and go see where supper is." She glided across the room, stopped next to a bewildered Kristoff, and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her, face full of concern, and she had to fight to keep her smooth mask in place. "God help you, Kristoff. You'll be in my prayers."

And with that she swept from the room, a huge smile on her face until she reached the spiral stairs and noticed the pair of patrol guards standing there. Her thoughts returned to last night's conversation with Revel, and her heart sunk a bit. Then another thought crossed her mind and she winced, realizing what she had to do.


	4. Chapter 4

Revel rubbed his temples for the third time in an attempt to massage away the headache that had been plaguing him since awakening that morning. It had started out as nothing more than a mild ache behind his eyes but had very quickly escalated into a pounding throb that only worsened when he was in any sort of bright light or when he stared at the mounds of papers scattering his desk like tree dandruff.

_Is there any end to paperwork, or is this just a glimpse of what I should expect to find in hell?_

Indeed, Revel had acquired quite a bit of work over the past few days. Recruiting season was already upon the kingdom, and the Captain had received at least sixty petitions to join the royal guard. Most of the candidates would be weeded out during drill week, the week of pure hellish torture all would-be recruits must participate in before the true training began, but that still meant sitting down with each individual candidate and gleaning what information he could from them about family history, illnesses, and any past crimes on the ledger in the House of Justice. And all of that required paperwork, and all of it was on top of patrol notices, citations and warrants that needed signing, dock receipts, and a hundred other things waiting within the stacks of crisp manila papers.

Groaning inwardly, Ravel attempted to pick up a stack of citations, mostly minor infractions with the more severe resting on the top, knocked another pile onto the floor with his elbow, and in an attempt to keep those precious papers from rolling away, dropped the citation stack. For a half a heartbeat he just stared at the scattering papers in numb disbelief. Today just wasn't going to be his day, he could already tell. The bad luck that had plagued him last night during his walk with the queen seemed to have followed him into the next day, and he knew all he could do was let it works its course. Too frustrated to do much else, Revel put his head down on his desk and closed his eyes. Relief washed over him as the muscles behind his eyes relaxed, relinquishing their stranglehold on his eyeballs and giving him just a few moments reprieve from the pain. He was just about to drift into a state of semi-consciousness when there came a knock at the door, three sharp, loud raps that sent him sitting bolt upright out of instinct and caused a lance of pain to explode behind his eyes.

"Damnit," Revel cursed, pushing his chocolate locks away from his forehead. No, this just wasn't going to be his day.

"Sebastian, I swear to God," he growled as he rose and crossed the small windowless chamber that was his office and pulled the door open with a yank, "if you ask if I've gotten your warrant signed one more damn—"

"Good afternoon, Captain," Elsa said with an arched eyebrow, hands folded neatly in front of her.

Revel felt the color drain from his face and automatically snapped into a sharp salute, back cracking painfully with the sudden jerky movement.

"Majesty."

"Have I come at a bad time?"

"No, Majesty, and forgive me for my coarse language. Had I know it was you—"

"Unless you've developed the ability to see through solid wood doors, an apology is not needed."

"Thank you, Majesty." Revel didn't relax any, but he did drop out of his salute and stepped aside so that the young queen could enter. Elsa did just that, taking in the small office with a glance. It was a simple room with hardly any decoration save for a few medals on plaques and a pair of crossed swords mounted above a modest fireplace. The Captain's desk was a chaotic mess of disheveled papers, some set into stacks while others sat loosely with its neighbors. The floor around the squat maple desk was dotted with discarded papers that fluttered and curled as the Captain closed the door behind them.

"Are you sure this isn't a bad time?" Elsa asked motioning at the disarray of paperwork. Revel blushed but didn't attempt to clean up his quarters, instead offering the queen a seat which she refused with a slight wave of the hand.

"If you don't mind, I'd prefer to remain standing. You, however, may sit."

Revel obeyed wordlessly, sinking back down into his most uncomfortable, unpadded wooden chair and folding his hands before him. "May I ask what brings you down to my office, Majesty? Is there a problem that needs taking care of?"

Elsa regarded the dark-haired man for a few moments, choosing her next few words carefully. "I wouldn't necessarily call it a problem, though that depends entirely on who you speak to."

Revel gave the queen a quizzical look. "I'm not sure I follow, Majesty."

"Then I will speak plainly. My sister will no longer be participating in her nightly sessions with you."

The Captain felt his world tilt dangerously to one side and had to plant his hands on the desk to keep from toppling out of his chair. It felt as if the air had been sucked out of the chamber. The queen knew. He didn't know how she'd found out, he and Anna had been careful not to draw attention to themselves, but she knew. Suddenly the room was a bit too bright despite there only being a low burning oil lamp hanging beside his desk. Squeezing his eyes shut, Revel attempted to push his now screaming headache aside and focus on the here and now. What he said next could very easily determine where and how his career ended. He couldn't even fathom what the queen would do or had done to her sister now that she knew.

_To hell with my career, protect the Princess,_ he thought as his mind finally clicked into gear.

"Majesty please, it was my idea. I approached Princess Anna about the sparring lessons. She had offhandedly mentioned while watching a training session that she wanted to learn a few techniques, and I offered to teach her. She refused at first but I persisted. Please, Majesty, if you have to be angry with someone be angry with me."

Elsa narrowed her eyes at the Captain, unsure of what he thought he was doing. She'd not expected this type of reaction from him. Admission yes, perhaps a little guilt at being caught, but he was acting as if confessing to a major crime. And to make matters worse, placing the blame entirely on himself was akin to committing suicide. She didn't know whether to be impressed or irritated.

"Captain," Elsa asked in a frigid tone, cerulean-blue eyes hard as compact ice, "do you understand that lying to your queen, or any member of the royal family, is a crime punishable by death?"

Revel didn't bat an eyelash, didn't even flinch. "Yes, Majesty."

"Are you willing to gamble your life on a lie?"

"Everything was my idea, Majesty. Do with me what you will, but please do not be angry with Princess Anna." Revel stood slowly, his body numb from the neck down. This was it. This was the culmination of his career right here. To serve faithfully for years only to throw himself onto the executioners block in order to keep the princess from harm. But was that what he was really doing? Was this just some antiquated form of nobility coming out in him, the urge to protect what he saw as the helpless maiden? The idea very nearly made him laugh. Anna was anything but helpless, three years of near constant nightly sparring tempering an already tough young woman into a force to be reckoned with. And hadn't the queen and her sister reconciled their past differences a long time ago? Surely this small secret wouldn't be enough to drive them apart again…could it? The thought made Revel nauseated. If he were solely responsible for the re-division of the royal family he didn't know if he could honestly live another day.

Elsa watched the Captain closely, studying every flicker of emotion that flashed across his face. It surprised her Revel was so willing to, both figuratively and literally, throw himself on the sword. It was an old noble quality, one she wasn't sure all the guards under her command possessed, but was it nobility or just another form of self-harm? The question straddled such a vast grey area Elsa didn't know if she wanted to delve into it. Instead she took a breath to clear her head.

"I know you're lying, Captain," the queen said in a quiet voice. "And I know _why_ you're doing it. You think that by taking the blame you're somehow protecting my sister, but, I have to wonder, what you're trying to protect her from. Do you think I would do something to harm Anna?"

"Never, Majesty!"

"Then you're lying in order to partake in some form of punishment? If you are dissatisfied with your current rank there are better ways to step down than this."

"No, I'm just—"

"Doing your duty," Elsa finished his sentence with a sigh and decided that it would be best to sit. Revel immediately sank into his own chair, his striking green eyes as wide as dinner plates. A faint smile began to curl at the corner of the queen's lips. "Captain, it is both comforting and unnerving to know that you would be so willing to protect my sister, to protect any of my family in such a way. I don't know whether or not to call it chivalry or insanity, but I believe there is a measure of both in each. Still, I did not come down here today to dole out any punishment or berate you for keeping secrets from me. If we are being honest, I've known about your sessions with my sister for a year now."

"I…what?"

"It was during the night the second assassin tried to take my life. Anna fought him off until I awoke. It was Kristoff who informed me that my sister had been taking lessons from you for two years. I'll admit I was extremely angry with the both of you. To keep secrets from the queen is a treasonous offence, and if anyone had found out, or if Anna had been seriously wounded during a session, it would have been _your_ blood they would have cried for. You put yourself at great risk by teaching my sister how to fight, but I must thank you for it. Because of your teachings, Anna saved my life that night, and, in turn, you saved hers."

"I'm sure she would have fought the assassin off regardless of my tutelage," Revel said in numb disbelief. So apparently he wasn't going to die, not yet at least.

"Doubtful. Anna may be more rough-and-tumble than most princesses, but pitted against a professional assassin, I'm certain she and I would have lost our lives that night."

"You pay me too great an honor, Majesty."

"I give respect where respect is due, Captain." Elsa said with a nod. "Now, back to the matter at hand. The reason why my sister can no longer continue her lessons with you is because she is with child."

If it were possible, Revel's eyes grew wider and some color seemed to return to his cheeks. "This is wonderful news, Majesty!"

"Indeed, it is. I suspect Anna will come to tell you herself, but I wanted to make it clear that her lessons are to stop. I will not have my sister's child put in jeopardy. Is that clear, sir?"

"Yes, Majesty. I can honestly say that, had the princess come and told me first, I would have suspended her lessons until after the child was born."

"You are a professional man, Captain," Elsa said as she stood from her chair and straightened her dress. "I have no doubt you would have done what was best for my sister. I just wanted to make things clear. I know how persuasive Anna can be when she wants something."

Revel nodded and stood, opening the door for the queen and feeling like at any moment he could take off from the ground and fly. The weight of dread he'd felt only minutes ago had dissolved into nothingness, leaving him in a practically giddy mood. The queen was just passing over the threshold when she stopped and turned to him, so close he could see the light dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose.

"Captain, the way we left things last night…it was wrong of me to have gotten angry with you."

"I very nearly accused you for committing heresy, Majesty. Had you not gotten angry I would have been worried."

"Regardless, I would like to speak with you privately this evening. There have been things on my mind recently…things that I believe you may be able to help me with."

Revel smiled, feeling warmth spread across his chest. So they were still friends, or at least close acquaintances. He would never assume he and the queen could ever pass beyond a professional relationship.

"Of course, Majesty," Revel said making sure to keep his voice low. "Our same spot then, say around midnight?"

"I'll be waiting," Elsa nodded and swept away, the scent of morning frost and mountain air trailing in her wake.

* * *

><p>Elsa leaned against the southern parapet watching the small waves lap against the stony shore thirty feet down. It was a cloudy night, the cold stars swallowed up as storm clouds rolled in off the sea, a promise of rain hanging thick in the air. She'd gotten there a full hour before the Captain, compiling her thoughts as best she could. So much had happened in one day. Anna had come home only to discover she was pregnant and a message from the troll kingdom had arrived when Olaf had ridden back into town on Sven (the two had been spending quite a bit of time together over the two weeks Kristoff had been gone), detailing that Grand Pabbie wanted the two newlyweds to partake in a traditional troll wedding to solidify their marriage in the eyes of the clan. It would take a week for the ceremony to be complete, and though Elsa was loath to let Anna venture into the mountains now that she was with child, her sister had insisted they go, arguing that the trolls were just as much family as she was.<p>

"Plus, we won't be leaving for a few days. Pabbie said he wanted to wait until the next lunar eclipse, which according to him is four days from now. Apparently it's powerful good luck getting married under a lunar eclipse."

"Powerful good luck," Kristoff confirmed with a solemn nod.

So, Elsa had reluctantly consented to let her sister go, but declined the offer to accompany them. There was just too much to do in Arendelle at the moment she couldn't pull herself away. Especially after receiving news about the trouble brewing in the neighboring kingdom of Evendelle. Apparently a powerful duke, angry with the rise in taxes on the wealthy, had rallied supporters and built himself a small army and marched on Evendelle, very nearly killing the king but succeeding in killing his wife and unborn child in their flight from the castle. The warband had been hunted down and executed for high treason, but the news had shocked Elsa in a way she hadn't been prepared for. All she could think about was, _what if that had been my sister killed in the attack while I lived? _That was why she needed to speak to the Captain tonight despite their prickly separation the previous evening.

She heard the heavy wood door close quietly and turned to see Revel walking toward her. He wore a burgundy oil cloak to protect against the oncoming rain, but had changed out of his guard's uniform into something more casually comfortable. Under the cloak she could see he sported a dark brown or black vest overtop a green undershirt. His trousers were his customary black along with his boots which looked to have been shined recently. In his hand he carried an oil lantern already lit with a small orange flame dancing behind the glass cover.

"Good evening, Captain," Elsa said acknowledging him with a nod. Revel ducked into a slight bow, as was usual for him, returning upright with a broad smile on his face. He quickly took his place beside her, lantern set atop the wall.

"Same to you, Majesty. It looks as if we might be in for some rocky weather this evening."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it?" Elsa replied, eyes closed as she listened to the song of the wind echo through the mountains on either side of the fjord. The Captain joined her in their usual silent appraisal of the fjord and connecting sea, just enjoying the sound of nature's voice swirling around them. He knew the queen would speak when ready.

"There's been trouble in Evendelle recently," Elsa said after a long stretch of silence. She knew she was giving confidential information to someone of lower rank, someone she didn't know if she could fully trust, but she had to get her thoughts out before they ate her from the inside out.

"I've heard rumors from friends within the city," Revel said quietly. "Horrible rumors. The queen and her unborn child are dead and the king is inconsolable."

"The rumors are true. Queen Lastasha was killed when the duke's army stormed the castle. King Estevan defeated the warband, and those who were left after the cowards scattered were hunted down and executed, the duke included."

"I grieve for Estevan's loss. I met Queen Lastasha when I was very young, and she was a wonderfully kind woman. Heaven has gained one more good heart, it seems."

Elsa glanced at Revel out of the corner of her eye. How he had met a queen was beyond her, but he seemed genuinely saddened by the news of her death so she left her questions unsaid.

"Which is why I asked you here tonight," the young queen said, moving away from the railing. That was Revel's sign she wanted to walk along the perimeter wall, and he wordlessly followed his queen into the darkness.

"This news has really troubled you hasn't it?"

"More than you can possibly understand," Elsa whispered, wrapping her long arms around her stomach. "I constantly fear for the safety of my family, Revel. It's a gnawing fear that won't go away no matter how many times I tell myself they're protected by my powers, by my army, by my guards, by you. I realized after last year's assassination attempt that all of us are vulnerable to outside attacks. The man who stabbed me in the crowd didn't look like the stereotypical storybook villain we are taught to look out for as children. He was average in every way, able to blend in with his surroundings like a chameleon."

Out of the corner of his eye, Revel caught Elsa's right thumb trace a horizontal line on her purple bodice a few inches under her left breast and instinctively knew she was reliving the pain of her scar. It was a nervous tick he'd spotted during their nightly walks. Whenever conversation of past events, the assassination attempt, or her family's safety came about the queen's right thumb would trace the four inch scar like someone rubbing a worry stone. Tonight was no different save for the fact that she looked like a caged animal desperate to find a way out of a trap. Revel stepped closer to Elsa and felt the cold a moment later. It wasn't as bitter as it had been the night before, but he could feel the arctic breeze swirling around her like wind in a bottle.

"I understand your fear, Majesty."

"You of all people should," Elsa said choosing a place to stop walking and leaning against the wall again. It was far enough away from the perimeter and tower doors she knew their conversation would not be overheard.

"I know I can't put your fears to rest with just words, but please know that I'll do everything in my power to protect you and your family. I swore it upon my entrance into the royal guards, and I swear it to you now."

"I know you will, Revel," Elsa nodded, turning and gifting him with a rare smile that made her cerulean blue eyes dance. The Captain felt a warm burst of light in his chest like a brushfire igniting and couldn't help but smile back. But the queen's smile was gone a heartbeat later, replaced with an expression akin to concentrated determination. "Which is why I asked you here tonight. I have a…request to ask of you."

"Anything, Majesty," Revel said leaning against the wall with his hip and crossing his arms across his chest.

"I want you to teach me like you've taught Anna."

The Captain blinked in utter surprise, his words momentarily escaping him as his mouth fell open in shock. That hadn't been anywhere near what he'd been expecting to hear.

"I…um…Majesty I'm not sure I…_what_?"

"I didn't think I stuttered," Elsa frowned.

"You didn't, it's just…Majesty, is that wise? I mean, the princess is one thing, but you… and with your powers—"

"My powers scare you," Elsa said with such stoic rigidity it was difficult to see that she'd begun retreating into herself, hands curled into fists at her sides. In the darkness, the Captain could see the faint glow of her arctic magic peeking through the cracks between her fingers.

_Damn my inability to speak to women!_ Revel raged watching the queen take a reflexive step away from him.

"Majesty, that's not at all what I mean," Revel said taking a step towards her, determined not to let her sink any further into the depths of her mind. "Your powers are as much a part of you as a sword is a part of a fencer. I don't fear your powers; I have a healthy respect for them. But what I meant to say was, you are the queen. It was easy, well not entirely easy, but regardless, it was easier for Princess Anna and me to spar in secret because she's a princess. The security around her isn't near what it is around you. Also, I can't see your court or cabinet being all too pleased to hear their queen has taken up ground grappling with the guard captain."

Elsa's head whipped around, and the Captain felt himself shrink under her sudden intense stare. "I couldn't give a _damn_ what they think. Not a _damn!_ Their concern isn't for my family, but mine is. I'm the eldest, I'm queen. It's my responsibility to protect them," Elsa bit out, planting her hands on the perimeter wall, nails scraping the stone. For just the briefest of moments she let her fear take control and, before she could stop it, a sheet of ice overtook the railing three feet in either direction.

Revel jumped at the sudden cold snaking up his pants leg and spreading across the bottom half of his vest like creeping vines. He'd never seen Elsa's ice magic close up and could understand why people feared it. Aside from it being shockingly cold, the way the ice shifted and moved made it seem like it had a mind of its own. Gently he brushed the ice crystals from his clothes, fascinated by the pattern they made on warm fabric, but looked up in surprise when the queen gave a startled gasp. She'd jumped away from the wall as well, a look of utter terror on her face, glowing hands clamped together and pressed firmly against her chest.

"I'm sorry, oh God, I'm so sorry…" she began backing away, all royal demeanor gone. Now she looked like a scared twenty-five-year-old woman looking for an escape. Elsa knew this was a direct result of the stress she'd been under since that morning. Over the years she'd learned how to deal with the rigors of ruling and, with Anna's help, learned how to not bottle her emotions. But things had moved so fast today she'd forgotten to take the necessary steps to ensure she wasn't back building power.

_Get it under control,_ Elsa thought clenching her jaw so tightly her back teeth ached, forcing her magic back under her reins. _Control it, don't let it control you. Control it. Control it!_

"Majesty," Revel said very softly. When she didn't respond he took a cautious step forward, hands out to show he wasn't going to hurt her. "Queen Elsa, calm down. I'm all right. It just startled me that's all. I've never see your magic up close before."

Elsa stopped and planted her feet, determined to regain control. Eyes scrunched tightly closed, she battled with the swirling tempest quickly rising in her. A bloom of warmth suddenly overtook her body beginning at her shoulders and spreading down across her chest, allowing her just enough of a respite from the clawing cold she was able to wrestle her magic back into place. After a few silent moments and some heavy breathing, the fear squirming inside finally quieted and the queen could think clearly for the first time since dropping Anna off at the medical wing that morning. It felt good to breathe, to shake off her cloying stress sitting on her chest like a stone. Opening her eyes, she saw that Revel was standing closer than he had been before the panic set in, and he was without his oil cloak. It was then she realized why she'd felt so warm.

"You looked cold," Revel offered by way of explanation when Elsa touched the slick fabric of his cloak.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice, feeling warmth pool in her cheeks. Clearing her throat in order to cover for her embarrassment she said, "Are you sure you're all right? None of the ice touched you?"

"No, it just spread over my vest." Looking down, Revel saw the ghost image of the ice etched into the soft leather like a shadow. When he touched it the fabric felt cold. "Truly, your magic is a strange and wonderful thing. I've never seen the like."

"You're too kind," Elsa managed with a small half-smile. She'd been complimented about her magic before, certainly for her sculptural abilities, but somehow Revel's compliment seemed more genuine than most.

"So, about your proposal," the Captain said picking his lantern up and coming to stand next to the queen. Elsa flinched away, but he kept his body loose to show he felt no fear towards her for what she'd done.

"I'm beginning to think it was a mistake to even ask."

"A pity, because my evenings have just opened up for the foreseeable next nine months, and I'd hate to have to waste that precious time doing paperwork."

"You mean actually _doing_ your job," Elsa quipped with a lopsided smile, feeling more and more comfortable the farther they walked back towards the perimeter doors.

"You wound me, Majesty!" Revel said clutching at his heart dramatically.

"I only speak about what I know, and I know you hate doing paperwork as much as I do."

A fat raindrop decided at that moment to plunge from the sky and land squarely atop Elsa's head. Startled, she looked up and was rewarded with another fat drop, this one very nearly hitting her in the eye.

"I think that storm you were talking about is about to—"

The heavens opened with a sudden vengeance and dumped torrents of cold water onto the kingdom and the two figures standing atop the southern perimeter wall. Elsa laughed and pulled up the hood of Revel's cloak before any more water could soak her head. The Captain shrugged out of his leather vest and attempted to use it as a makeshift hood, but it was poor protection against the driving rain.

"Oh God, that's cold!" Revel shouted over the roar of the water.

"The cold never bothered me!" Elsa retorted with a wild laugh. She loved being in the middle of storms, cloak or no cloak.

"Well, that's all well and good for you, but normal people still feel it!"

"Apologies," Elsa said and lifted a portion of cloak enough so that he could duck inside and keep dry. He only hesitated for a second until the queen shot him an incredulous look. "Really, Captain? I may be the Snow Queen, but I'm not going to freeze you if you stand too close."

Deciding he'd better not test his already deplorable luck, Revel stepped next to Elsa and took his corner of the cloak in hand. This close and he could feel her body heat which surprisingly seemed about average give or take a few degrees. She shifted closer and linked arms with him, a giddy smile spreading across her face.

"If we're going to make it in before you freeze, I suggest we make a run for the door!"

"After you!"

The two took off at a dead run, cloak flapping and snapping behind them like a dark flag. Puddles of water exploded underfoot as they ran, and before long both were laughing like children as the torrent increased in severity. Finally the perimeter door loomed in front of them and they crashed through, all soggy giggles and broad smiles.

"I've not done that in years," Elsa said breathlessly, shaking water from her arms and hands. The cloak wound up providing little protection from the rain with an extra person concealed within, her hair plastered against her scalp, her bodice and skirt a sopping mess, but she hardly cared. Revel seemed to have fared just as well, his undershirt stuck to his chiseled chest like an extra skin, and his breeches thoroughly soaked.

"I do it about once a month in the rainy season, but this was by far the most entertaining rainy sprint I've partaken in."

Elsa shrugged out of the cloak and handed it back to the Captain, but he shook his head. "Might as well leave it on the hook to dry. If Kai or Gerda sees water droplets all over their clean floors..."

"Good plan," Elsa said and hung the soaking piece of fabric next to the antechamber lantern. For a few moments the queen and the Captain stood watching each other, both unwilling to move and risk breaking the light atmosphere. Finally Elsa cleared her throat and opened the second door.

"Good night, Captain."

"Good night, Majesty. I will see you tomorrow night, though perhaps an earlier time would be best? I prefer to teach in secret around ten in the evening, exactly one hour after lights out in the barracks."

"Then I will see you at ten sharp, Captain," Elsa said, moving out of the room. Before she disappeared around the corner she shot him a smile over her shoulder and nodded. "Ten sharp."

"Oh, and wear sensible clothes," Revel said a little louder than he'd planned and flushed. Elsa only nodded and continued walking, leaving the Captain to drip dry in the antechamber, goofy smile pulling at the corners of his lips.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Whew, this chapter man...it just wouldn't come together the way I wanted it to. Had to scrap it twice before it finally settled into something halfway decent. Anyway, enjoy my friends! As always, let me know what you think.

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><p>"Anna, we're gonna get caught," Kristoff whispered as the two slipped through the servant's entrance hand in hand, loose pieces of mud and leaf debris littering the carpeted floor behind them. Anna held up her hand for Kristoff to stop, leaning around the corner directly in front of them to see if the coast was clear. She watched the patrol guard finish his walk of the corridor and disappear out of sight before dragging her husband down the narrow hallway and up an equally narrow set of servant's stairs hidden behind a mottled grey patinaed suit of armor. It was well after midnight and the two had just returned from an impromptu trip into town.<p>

"If we didn't get caught going over the wall, we're not going to get caught sneaking back in. Plus, we got in before the guards saw us, and everyone is asleep."

"Your sister doesn't sleep," the mountain man said throwing a quick glance over his shoulder as if verbal mention of the queen would somehow conjure her.

"Contrary to popular belief, my sister does in fact sleep. She's just an early riser."

"Somehow that's not comforting."

"Oh shut up and keep moving," Anna said with mock seriousness, throwing him a quick smile.

The two continued in silence before they reached an area of the residency wing where guests usually stayed while visiting. Nine unoccupied rooms took up the hallway, yellow covered lanterns illuminating the walls and floor in small pools of warm light. Anna pulled her husband along until they reached the place the princess had been intending to take him, a broad smile starting to pull at her lips.

They stopped at the mouth of a shallow alcove inhabited by a seemingly nondescript marble statue of a female nun holding a small cross against her chest, head slightly tilted back with a faraway look on her ageless stone face. Her robes were plain, her feet were bare, she had the stereotypical halo of beaten brass attached to her head like some strange inverted crown, and Kristoff didn't have a single clue why his wife had insisted they climb the perimeter wall at midnight just to raid an herbalist's garden a few blocks from the castle for a bundle of herbs to leave at this particular statue.

"I present to you Saint Colette, patron saint of women seeking to conceive and expecting mothers," Anna said as if introducing him to a close friend.

The mountain man stepped back in order to get a better look at the statue and scratched his head, unsure of what exactly to do or say. Growing up with the trolls, Kristoff hadn't been exposed to the Catholic religion until meeting Anna, and he was still having trouble wrapping his head around all their rules, symbology, saints, and rituals. It was head spinning and a little uncomfortable for him. The trolls were elemental beings who called the earth their mother and the moon their father, both being the beginning and end to all life. They prayed to a single nameless god, the deity responsible for the creation of their Mother and Father, and to multiple spirits of land, air, sea and fire, but that was it. For Kristoff it had been enough, but being married into the royal family, subsequently marrying into their religion, he'd been expected to know at least the basics, but even that was hard to swallow at times.

"Ok, so why are we here again?" Kristoff said looking to Anna for some idea about what to do next.

"It's an old tradition my mother told me about when I was young." The princess reached into the pouch resting against her hip and pulled a bundle of herbs free. Without any preamble, she approached the statue, knelt, and kissed the nun's feet while tucking the herb bundle safely behind the statue so that passersby wouldn't see it. Then she was up on her feet again and turning towards her husband, a sheepish smile on her face.

"I never told you the legend about the Frosberg bloodline, did I?"

"I think I might have remembered that," Kristoff said with a sideways smile. Anna smiled back and turned towards the statue.

"The legend goes that, during the reign of the first Frosberg monarch, Queen Saja was unable to conceive a child. Though the king and queen tried for years they were never able to produce an heir, and there was fear that the Frosberg line would end before it even had a chance to begin. In her desperation, Saja sought the aid of a mountain shaman in secret. The woman's name was Snaer which means 'snow' in the old tongue. Snaer saw that the Queen truly wanted a child, not just to please the king or to solidify her family's rule, but to also bring happiness upon herself, so she made a deal with Saja. The Queen had to seek out six sacred herbs and bring them to her before the day's end: snakeweed, watercress, viper's bugloss, chamomile, wergulu, and sweet fern." Anna motioned to the hidden herb bundle to further illustrate her tale.

"Saja happily agreed and brought the old shaman her herbs which the woman boiled down into a paste that the Queen was to rub on her stomach for one week before trying to conceive again. Apparently it worked, because three months later the Queen was with child. But all things come at a price, and magic is not excluded. The shaman's burden for Saja was that from that point on all pregnant mothers in the Frosberg line would have to pick those same six herbs and do one of three things: burn them, offer them as an offering to a goddess of fertility, or boil them down into a paste to smear on their stomachs. Failure to do so would have dire consequences, but the old shaman never explained what those would be. So it became a tradition in my family…" Anna trailed off, her eyes wandering down the hallway towards where her sister's room was around two sets of corners. "A tradition that my mother failed to do while pregnant with Elsa."

Kristoff blinked in utter surprise and did a double take at the nun statue. Was that what Anna was doing? Giving this Catholic fertility saint an offering? The idea shook him to his core and he looked at his new wife through entirely new eyes. All this time he'd thought her rooted in her religion like all royals were. It wasn't like Anna was a pious woman, she only went to service when absolutely necessary, same with her sister, but just the idea she was participating in something as taboo as pagan superstition made him fall in love with her all over again. Suddenly she didn't seem as distant as before, like he could bridge the gap between their beliefs with a small plank of wood rather than having to build a two-mile-long bridge.

Anna stepped next to Kristoff, rubbing her shoulder with her right hand. She seemed genuinely uneasy, her body tensing as she wrapped her hands around her waist and hugged herself and the baby gently.

"I know it's just a story, just traditional superstition, but every little bit of luck helps, right?" Anna whispered.

"You think that because your mother didn't do this tradition that's the reason Elsa was born with ice powers?" Kristoff said, pulling his wife close.

"We don't know. I know Elsa's researched the legend a hundred times trying to figure out why she was born different. She's spoken with herb specialists and potion masters, researched the herbs used in the legend, even went as far as recreating the same poultice Snaer made for Saja, but nothing strange ever happened. They are just plants boiled down into a paste. She and I even tried tracking down a descendant of Snaer but none exist, so we were ultimately back to square one."

"But it's just a legend."

"All legends have some element of fact in them," Anna said looking up at Kristoff. Then she said more quietly, "I just don't want to take any chances. Whatever happens to our baby, however he or she turns out, I just want to know I did everything right."

"You've not done wrong by me or by our child, Anna. It'll be perfect because it's a part of you, not because of what rituals or spells you say," the mountain man said putting his head atop Anna's and wrapping his arms around her, reveling in how warm she was against him, "Anyway, I think it's beautiful, the tradition I mean, not you. You're about as attractive as Sven."

Anna made an outraged noise and pushed away from her husband. "To think I once found you charming! Well since my sister was convinced this was Sven's baby in the first place, I guess I'll go and seek his affections then."

The princess made to stalk off in the opposite direction, fighting to keep her supposed outraged mask in place, when Kristoff swooped in and spun her like a top, hands planted on her shoulders.

"Hey now, give a poor ice harvester a chance to apologize for being an ass. Sometimes I forget my manners," he said with a devious smile as he slid in close.

"I don't think I should even give you the chance," Anna said feigning a hurt attitude.

"You sure? I can be awfully convincing," Kristoff growled as he backed his wife into the base of the statue and began nuzzling her neck. Anna shivered and a faint gasp escaped her parted lips. She fought to keep her voice even as her husband began gently kissing the point where her neck and shoulder met, lips leaving lines of fire in their wake as he worked up to her earlobe.

"C-can you now? I'm not sure how much weight the words of a—"

She was cut off mid-sentence by Kristoff's lips connecting with hers, gently at first but growing in intensity and need with each passing second. Anna felt her body flare with heat and arch towards him as her fingers curled in his thick blond hair, her tongue exploring the familiar cavern of his mouth as his did the same with hers. She felt his wide, warm hands begin to wander down her sides until they rested firmly on her hips, and the next thing she knew her legs were around his waist, squeezing him with almost a desperate need.

"You sure you won't let me apologize?" the mountain man said in a breathy growl, his body already feeling the effect of his arousal.

"Don't let me stop you," Anna replied in an equally breathy whisper, closing her eyes and letting the sensation of his hands trailing lines of quivering fire under her short skirt and up her thighs wash over her like baptismal water. When his fingers slid home in the soft wetness between her legs it was all she could do to stop from throwing her head back and screaming.

"Oh God…oh my God…" she rasped, head resting on his shoulder, fingers curled in his hair. She was so far gone in her ecstasy she didn't even hear it coming.

"Must you do this _here_?"

The two lovers froze. Anna's eyes flew open and she had about half a second to realize her sister was standing on the opposite side of the narrow hall glaring at her before life came crashing back into her like a cannon ball.

"Shit!" Anna exclaimed and attempted to untangle herself from Kristoff who was doing the same awkward dance as his wife. Face as red as a cherry, he didn't have the heart to turn and face the queen, instead standing sideways while his cheeks radiated fire like a forge.

"I…umm…what are you doing up so late?" Anna asked as she slid out from behind her husband and attempted to straighten her ruffled skirt and top.

"You've been climbing the wall again," Elsa said coolly as she took in the grass and mud stains on her sister's skirt, elbows, and hands. Anna flushed a few more shades of scarlet and knew she was caught.

"We…uh…that is," Anna realized with a start that her sister was soaking wet from head to toe, her hair just beginning to dry in frizzy waves. "Why are you all wet? Is it raining outside?"

"Don't change the subject. Where were you?"

"I..I took Kristoff—"

"Over the wall and into town without a proper guard escort," Elsa said finishing her sister's sentence for her. She'd seen scrapes and grass stains like these many times before and knew exactly what her sister had been up to, and it galled her to no end. Anna had always been one for blatantly disobeying the rules of the house even when Mother and Father were alive. After the assassination attempt last year, Elsa had told her younger sister she was not allowed into town without an escort, if the queen had to have one she was going to make damn sure Anna did as well. The princess had hated the idea as much as Elsa had, and in order to get around the queen's decree, had taken up scaling the wall either with Kristoff in tow or by herself when she thought no one was watching. More often than not she was caught and reprimanded, but Elsa couldn't always be there to watch Anna, and frankly she didn't think she needed to. Her sister was well into her adult years, and it was high time she started acting like it.

Anna finally caved under Elsa's withering glare and lowered her eyes. "I took him to the herbalist's home to get herbs for…the tradition."

Elsa drew back a bit and actually looked at the statue behind her sister. Sure enough it was Saint Colette and there was a sudden new anger simmering in the queen's blood.

"You were having sex against the statue of Saint Colette?" Anna tried to open her mouth to speak, to explain that things had just gotten a little out of hand, but Elsa was already furious, her body as rigid as plank of wood. "Anna, I believe I've been quite accommodating with the two of you and your marital responsibilities, but this, _this_ will not happen again. You cannot, and I will not, have you two rutting like animals wherever you damn well choose. If you must be together do so behind closed doors where the castle staff and I aren't liable to walk in on you!"

"You're being absolutely ridiculous," Anna sputtered, her own temper rising. "It just got a little out of hand."

"I can see that! And I have no doubt I know where _his_ hand was," Elsa said pointing at a now mortified Kristoff who wanted nothing more than to become one with the wall beside him and fade into nothingness.

"_That _is none of your business," Anna said crossing her arms over her chest and staring defiantly at her sister. Enough was enough; they couldn't keep doing this absurd dance. "Elsa, this castle is my home just as much as it's yours, and I have as much right to do and say whatever the hell I please as you do. We weren't hurting anyone, there aren't any guests in this wing, the guards changed stations an hour ago, and it wasn't like I planned this in the first place! But Kristoff and I are _married_. We're not courting anymore, we can actually show affection in public without disgracing you or the Frosberg name, and you know what, I'm going to do just that!"

"There are people in this castle who don't want to be constantly reminded of their relationships or lack thereof!"

"I don't rightly care! I'm not going to live in fear of showing my affections like you constantly seem to do," Anna said, biting off every word and spitting them at the queen as tactfully as an embarrassed and sexually frustrated princess could manage, which wasn't much.

For half a heartbeat Elsa looked genuinely hurt by her sister's words, but the moment passed and her face darkened, cerulean blue eyes flashing like polished stones. The two lovers could feel the sudden dip in temperature as ice crept up the wall in crackling spurts behind the queen, and Anna suddenly realized she'd said too much.

"I will ask you only once to retire to your room for the rest of the evening. _Only_…_once_," the queen said, voice quivering with anger but face as stony as the statue peering at her from over Kristoff's shoulder.

At first Anna didn't move, too stunned to do much of anything aside from breathe. She knew she was in the wrong, but her embarrassment and exasperation had gotten the better of her, and now Elsa was angry and she never felt so helpless. Kristoff finally stirred and gently guided his wife towards their room, hands on her shoulders and head down as he passed the queen. In a last ditch effort to salvage the situation, Anna reached for her sister.

"Elsa I'm—"

But the queen turned away, closing herself off from whatever her little sister was about to say like a door slamming shut. Anna recoiled as if struck and felt tears well in her eyes.

_There are people who don't want to be reminded of their relationships or lack thereof, _her sister's words echoed around in Anna's skull like distant thunder. Suddenly she realized what exactly Elsa had said and it was like a knife in the heart. There was no need for reading between the lines, her sister's message was as clear as cut crystal.

_I really am a selfish fool sometimes. Why did I say those things to her?_ Anna thought with a sad hiccup as she walked alongside her husband. She cast one last glance back at her sister who was still standing in front of the Saint Colette statue, shoulders slumped and head in her hands.

The sisters avoided each other the next day, taking their meals at different times and generally trying to stay out of the other's way as much as possible. Anna spent the majority of her time outside the castle with Kristoff, riding with him and Olaf into the mountains while Elsa remained behind in her study, shifting through the never ending piles of paperwork and setting up appointments with dignitaries. With July behind them and August already in full swing, the holiday season was fast approaching meaning parties and balls would have to be scheduled, guests would need contacting, and the mayhem that always accompanied most kingdoms around the celebratory months would begin in earnest very shortly. Elsa rubbed her temples at the thought of how much work would have to go into the planning and contemplated handing the duties off to Kai for the time being. She trusted the manservant's judgment more than her own at times and knew he would enjoy the challenge of party planning.

Sitting back in her chair and leaning her head against the padded backrest, the queen closed her eyes and tried to relax but the tension coiling the muscles of her back, neck and shoulders wouldn't leave. Her fight with Anna had plagued her the rest of the night, seeping into her dreams like a poison. She'd woken up more than once to frozen sheets and frost climbing her walls and had eventually given up on sleep, stumbling to her study and shutting herself in long before the sun peeked over the horizon. Now lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her, but no matter how much Elsa wanted to drift into the blissful arms of unconsciousness she couldn't get her mind to stop racing.

_Why did I get so angry with Anna last night,_ Elsa thought planting her elbows on the desk and burying her face in her hands. She didn't know what had set her off; she'd been in a particularly happy mood after her talk and rain soaked run with Revel, but seeing her sister and Kristoff in the throes of their passion, both unashamed and uncaring of where they were or who was watching, had put such a sour taste in her mouth she'd felt her jaws ache.

_I can't believe it,_ she thought with a quiet moan, realization very nearly slapping her in the face: _I'm jealous._

It had never occurred to her that she might be jealous of her little sister's relationship until now. Since the beginning of their courting, Elsa had been supportive of her sister, urging her and Kristoff to spend time together and even allowing the mountain man to move into a guest room in the castle after their first year together. She loved seeing Anna happy after so many years of rebukes and rejections, but now Elsa realized with a sick twist of her stomach that under it all, under the smiles and laughs and good natured jokes, she'd been jealous of what Anna had, of the freedom she had at her fingertips. Princesses were allowed to love who they wanted with very small limitations regarding rank, but queens…they had a very limited orchard to pick from, and at times it was infuriating.

Courting and marriage had been something Elsa secretly dreamed about in her younger years, but she knew logically her dreams would never be anything more than immature fantasy. Oh there were a plethora of available bachelor princes in the world who would like nothing more than to claim her hand -she entertained no less than thirty during most Arendelle's balls- but none of the men stood up to her rigorous and very nearly untouchable standards. That was only partially the problem. The fact that Elsa still struggled with the fear of allowing someone to get close to her was the root of the matter. She'd made great strides in the years since the Great Freeze, pulling herself from her isolated shell with her sister's constant aid, but it would take more than three years of emotional healing to rewrite the scarring damage of thirteen years of isolated torment.

Sighing, Elsa rose from her desk, deciding she'd done enough work for today. She left her study and headed towards her room. Already the sun had set and the shadows in the halls were long and deep as she padded towards the familiar comfort of her royal chambers. The room was draped in blue-gray shadows as she shouldered open the door, moonlight streaming in through the huge triangular window directly across from her bed. It appeared Gerda hadn't made her rounds yet to light Elsa's wall lanterns. Unperturbed, she grabbed a slender wick from the bunches she kept in a small glass jar next to her bed, lit it with a match, and made a slow circuit of the room. Once lit, the large circular lanterns, dotting her walls like glowing overripe fruit, chased away the gloomy darkness and Elsa went about rummaging through her large walk-in closet and armoire for a suitable outfit for tonight's lesson with Revel.

Despite the trouble she'd had last night with Anna and Kristoff, Elsa had every intention of taking the Captain up on his offer for combat training. She needed to learn just like Anna had, but secretly the queen hoped the lesson would be a good distraction from her guilt. In fact, anything that could get her mind off what had transpired last night would be a blessing.

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><p>Revel paced the circular training chamber like a wolf in a cage, his critical eyes sweeping over the racks of cleaned and polished weapons that took up half the room, gleaming metal glinting in the torchlight like heat lightning. It was a nightly ritual he was compelled to complete before retiring to his quarters just off the training chamber. Inspect every weapon, no matter how small or insignificant, and make sure they were to his standard of cleanliness and readiness. Of course, he knew his men had done as ordered as they did every night, polishing and sharpening their personal weapons before storing them in neat order on their respective racks, but the Captain was a man ruled by order and repetition and tonight was no different.<p>

_Well, that's not entirely true,_ Revel thought as he pulled a random sword from its sheath and inspected the honed and oiled blade. He spotted a few minute nicks and sucked his teeth. Clearly he would have to speak to the owner of this sword about sparring with live personal weapons. His men could train whenever they saw fit, and the Captain encouraged them to practice on each other so long as live weapons were never used unless he was present. He'd not been asked to coach any sparring sessions, so these nicks had been made in secret. It was irritating but nothing he hadn't dealt with before, and a swift reprimand would usually bring his men to heel. Returning the sword to its sheath with a soft click, the Captain slowly walked the armory rack, buffing and polishing hilts and pommels with an old polish rag while straightening the spear shafts for the sixth time since dismissing his men to their barracks two hours ago. He knew he was being anal retentive, everything didn't have to be perfect, but he couldn't help himself. Tonight was the exception. Everything _had_ to be perfect when the queen arrived. Everything had to be in its place.

Deciding against walking the room again, Revel took to pacing back and forth in the center of the large, chalk square that took up the majority of the chamber's floor space. He'd been wracking his brain all afternoon, trying to decide what and how he was going to teach the queen. Sure he had lesson plans already drawn up for his men, but guards usually trained as a unit, not individually. He could always refer back to the first few lessons he'd done with Anna, but he didn't know where the queen stood when it came to strength, speed, stamina, and flexibility.

_Most likely a far cry better than her sister, _Revel thought remembering with a smile how awkward Anna had been during their first few lessons. He tried to picture Elsa being that awkward, stumbling around and tripping over her own two feet, but couldn't. She was ever the poised and proper queen, immaculate in every way. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that training with her would be far more formal than it had been with Anna.

_But none of this helps me decide what to teach the queen tonight, or how to go about breaking the ice with her._

Revel returned to his pacing, his polished boots scraping against the hard-packed floor.

He'd trained dozens of men in this wide patch of trampled-down earth, years of use and hundreds of feet shuffling across the surface pounding the light brown dirt into a compact shell where nary a footprint appeared when walked upon. But tonight he feared he'd wear a hole in the dirt with all the pacing he was doing. It wasn't like him to be this nervous before a training session, to feel like he had battle armor butterflies knocking around in his stomach. Groaning, Revel tried to find something for his hands to do but there was nothing in the chamber he hadn't already touched, shifted, straightened, polished, re-polished, tied, and untied at least a hundred times already, so he was left with nothing to do aside from stand and wait. A quick glance at the clock he kept on a narrow shelf between the dust rags and polish tins told him it was ten o'clock and his stomach turned a somersault.

_This whole thing cannot be a good idea. This has got to be the worst thing I've agreed to do…_

The door creaked open with a faint groan and the Captain felt his back stiffen as a cloaked figure slipped in through the small gap and quickly shut the heavy wood and metal-studded door behind it. He glimpsed vague feminine features under the large, oversized hood, the briefest flash of white-blond hair as the queen turned her back to the Captain and threw the latch on the door. Revel swallowed uneasily, heart in his throat.

_Train the queen in combat, oh sure, no pressure…_

"Good evening, Captain," Elsa said lowering her hood, a tight smile on her face. Her bright eyes skipped around the room once before alighting back on the Captain. He could tell from the set of her shoulders and the tightness in her face she was nervous which was somewhat comforting. At least he wasn't the only nervous one.

"Evening, Majesty," Revel said bowing at the waist. He gestured to something over her shoulder, "If you'd like, you can hang your cloak on the hook behind you next to the torch."

Elsa nodded and turned, whirling her cloak off her shoulders like only a royal could, and Revel felt his jaw hit the floor at about the same times the butterflies in his stomach turned into raging vultures. The queen had chosen to wear a well-tailored riding outfit with a few noticeable modifications. Her top was a soft-blue poet shirt, tailored to fit her slender frame, tucked into a pair of fitted black breeches that stopped just shy of her waistline. She'd chosen sensible shoes, black shin-high calfskin boots with silver embroidery around the upper lip, and her hair had been braided and pinned back in a severe bun in order to keep her long, platinum locks securely in place. Altogether she struck quite a striking figure, her clothes hugging in just the right places and showing off her curves while not being overly obvious about it, and Revel felt his face reddening.

_You're a professional, damn it. Start acting like one and not some boy with a school yard crush!_

"I take it from your staring I chose my outfit correctly," Elsa said catching his eye as she glanced at him over her shoulder, a smile plainly evident in her voice. Revel cleared his throat, fighting to retain some levels of dignity.

"Yes, Majesty. You're already doing a far better job than your sister."

"Oh?" Elsa turned and clapped her hands in front of her, slipping into the poised posture of a queen effortlessly. There was still a smile on her face that only grew as Revel fought to get his words out.

"During our first meeting Princess Anna wore a dress and slippers. The second day she wore a sundress but came barefoot. It took me three more tries before I gave up and had her wear the training uniform I have all recruits wear during hell week. Needless to say, she wasn't all too happy with my wardrobe choice, but she eventually learned to appreciate the freedom a pair of breeches allows."

The thought of Anna's deep frown as a pair of grey breeches and a green tunic were handed to her made Elsa laugh, and a small portion of her unease began to chip away.

"Well, I'm glad I can make things a bit easier for you. I figured maneuverability would have to outweigh style during our sessions," Elsa said, holding out her arms to emphasize her point. Revel nodded and beckoned the queen to join him in the center of the training square.

"So, what will we begin with?" she asked as her eyes scrolled over the polished, gleaming pieces of lethal steel on the racks directly in front of her.

"That…is a very good question, and one I've not quite found an answer for."

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Finding the right rhythm with which to teach you. You see, during hell week," Revel began leaning back against a tall stack of wood and iron barrels situated next to a rack bristling with polished spears. "I seek to find the hidden skills and talents in my recruits. Some men are better runners than others. Some are natural climbers. Some have better reflexes, some are massively strong, and some are cunning and lithe. It all depends on the man, and it all depends on the course I make them run. Each one is specially designed to test for certain things, but I can't very well have you running all over the castle for a week while I search out your strengths and weaknesses. Not when I can still do basic tests in here," he said and motioned with his hand at the chamber around them. Rising from his lean, he began walking the perimeter line of the training square, tapping his chin while he thought. "So the question remains, what tests will I perform on you? What are you good at, Majesty?"

"Aside from being able to scribe my signature perfectly while blindfolded…I have become quite adept at eluding your guard patrols," Elsa said with a sideways smile.

"Good! That tells me you have the gift of stealth, which means you are light on your feet," Revel said with an appreciative nod. "What else?"

"Since we're talking about being light on one's feet, I'm a capable dancer."

"As I have seen. The fact that you also know so many dances tells me you take direction well. That and you have a mind for memory, which will be a great asset while training with me. Repetition is key when learning how to fight. It all comes down to muscle memory. What else? How are you on strength?"

"Have you seen my ice castle?" Elsa said raising an eyebrow and turning in time with Revel as he paced.

"Actually I have," he admitted, slowing and eventually coming to stand next to the queen. Elsa blinked in surprise, a little shocked by his answer.

"When was this?"

"I was one of the guards who accompanied Prince Hans up North Mountain," Revel admitted quietly, eyes distant.

"You…" Elsa squinted at the Captain trying to dredge up any scrap of memory she might have of him during that terrifying battle in her ice palace. She'd not been focused on her royal guards but rather on keeping from being shot by the Weselton brothers. "I don't remember seeing you there."

"I don't imagine you would. I wasn't a Captain back then, only a lieutenant, but anyway, that's not important."

_Like hell it's not,_ Elsa wanted to say. She didn't quite know how to feel knowing Revel had joined Hans in his attempt to bring her back from North Mountain. Had his intentions been out of loyalty for the crown or had Hans poisoned him into thinking she was the monster her kingdom needed to fear?

"I can imagine that building your ice palace took a great deal of strength and an astonishing knowledge of architecture."

Elsa tried to shrug as nonchalantly as possible, but she was having trouble moving past Revel's admission about being at her ice palace. "To be honest, the building process didn't take much strength at all, but I attribute that to magical back-build. Thirteen years of holding in my powers resulted in a four-day summer freeze and the erection of my ice palace. I don't think I'd be able to do it again. Actually, I'm fairly certain of it. Not many people realize there are limits to my power."

"I imagine your powers are much like any muscle in the body. After constant use, it and you would grow tired."

"You pretty much have the gist of it," Elsa conceded, pursing her lips and nodding. "Regardless, I've only been able to do it once and since then my magic has been less than stellar."

"Don't downplay your talents, Majesty. The fact that you _built a multistoried castle entirely out of ice_ goes to show that you have massive talent when it comes to your powers and the understanding of advanced structural elements."

A thought suddenly struck Revel like a well-placed punch to the gut, and it was enough to nearly knock him off his feet. Of course, that was his answer. It seemed so simple, so easy, but it felt so right.

Unlike her sister, Revel knew Elsa had a different style, a different rhythm. Anna was scrappy and more of a brawler, happy to get on her hands and knees and wrestle with the men. It was an endearing quality that made the Captain view the princess as more of a little sister, and he'd trained her like she'd been a part of his family. But the queen was completely opposite. Where Anna was scrappy Elsa was poised; where Anna was more of a brawler, Elsa was like a fencer, calculating, thinking through each move before she took it. So rather than approaching her training like he had with Anna, pushing caution to the wind and diving head first into complex combat techniques, Revel would have to focus more on form and repetition. That didn't mean his lessons would be any less intense than they were with Anna, there would just be more work done on foundational skills.

"You look like you've just cracked a hundred-year-old cipher," Elsa commented, interrupting Revel's thoughts.

"Sorry, I just realized how this is going to work."

"Care to explain?"

"Here, sit," Revel said dragging a squat stool over and nearly pushing the queen down onto it. Elsa watched with cautious apprehension as Revel darted around the room pulling different things from shelves and throwing them in a heap near her, grinning and muttering to himself as he worked. She glimpsed what looked to be a roll of gray cloth, padded mitts, a handful of sandbags, rope, and from one of the far corners of the chamber, Revel drug a five-foot-tall cylindrical bag mounted on a wooden stand into the center of the training square.

"I realized, I can't teach you like I taught Anna. The two of you are not the same person, and I believe I'd be robbing you of a chance to actually learn something that could save your life. Because that's what this is all about, the ability to protect yourself and others around you."

"All right," Elsa ventured, brow scrunched with confusion.

"Just bear with me because I know this all sounds a bit strange. The way I trained Anna was very hands-on. She insisted on being treated like any other recruit, and I reluctantly obliged. A lot of our sessions were spent breaking down complex combat techniques into easily learnable chunks, as I do with my men, but there really wasn't any curriculum I followed. We pretty much just winged it most nights. Anna would tell me what she wanted to learn or asked questions, and I'd show her the technique. She would then mirror me until she got it right. There were some foundational skills I taught her, as I'll do with you, but I didn't stress them as much. I don't believe that would work for you. Your sister is a what I like to call a brawler, while you are a fencer. Your mind is your greatest asset, but you learn primarily through repetition, correct?"

Elsa nodded, feeling her head begin to spin. Where was Revel going with this strange tangent of his?

"So pretty much what I'm getting at is, I'll teach you like I'd teach a fencing student. We'll begin with the basics, build a strong foundation, and then progress at a steady pace on to more complex techniques."

"That makes…actually a lot of sense," Elsa allowed, slowly nodding.

"Wonderful!" Revel flashed her a toothy smile and clapped his hands together, his excitement barely containable. "But there is one more element I want to address. Your powers."

Elsa blinked in utter surprise and unconsciously raised her hands to her chest, her previous unease returning with a vengeance. "What do you mean?"

"Remember when I spoke earlier of talents? You have quite a few, but the one that stands out the most, the one that quite literally interacts with every facet of your life, is your power. You have a gift, Majesty—"

"I assure you it's a curse," Elsa said flatly.

"I disagree," Revel retorted, shaking his head. "Though I can see why you'd view your magic in such a negative light. But what I think you don't understand is your magic is the best survival tool you could have for one very important reason. A weapon can be taken away. A sword can be shattered, a shield can break, a spear can be split, knives can be wrestled from your hands, and skills and techniques can be forgotten. Normal people can be left powerless, but you, Majesty, you can't. Your power is a permanent part of your entire being. It lives with you, breathes with you, grows with you, and it never leaves you. When you fought the Weselton brothers in your ice palace, you demonstrated you could defend yourself with your ice. At that moment, it was your shield and sword, your armor."

"A lot of good it did me. I could hardly keep them at bay," Elsa muttered with a bitter bite to her voice. The memory still haunted her... how close those thugs had come to ending her life with just the squeeze of a trigger.

"At the time you had never used your power for anything aside from blanketing the kingdom in ice and snow and building your ice castle. Of course, when you finally used it for self-defense it was extremely raw. You were working solely on instinct. But like all new skills, practice makes perfect. Like all forms of combat, repetition is key."

"Captain," Elsa frowned, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away so that she was in profile to him. She didn't want him to see the terror in her eyes that the very thought of unleashing her magic again dragged to the surface. Using it for party tricks or minor decoration was one thing, but he was asking her to use it while learning to fight, to make her magic more lethal than it already was. "I don't doubt your teaching skills, and I don't question your intentions, but when it comes to my powers, I'm loath to use them around any other living being. I spent thirteen years in isolation from my kingdom and my family because I feared what my power could and would do. That fear was realized when I very nearly killed my sister _because_ of my power. Now you ask me to unleash them here, in this room, while you coach me. It's a terrifying thought. I've only had control of my ice for three years, and even that is tentative at times."

Revel felt the temperature dip and moved closer to the queen. Even from the side he could tell she was petrified, but if she was going to learn she had to start by trusting him. Yes, her powers could very easily become lethal, he'd seen that with the two assassination attempts last year, but if she wanted to learn all Revel could teach her, she would have to relinquish some control over to him.

"Majesty, I understand your fears, I truly do, but if you are to learn how to protect yourself you must first learn to _trust_ yourself. It's been three years since the Great Freeze, and I've not seen a single person harmed by your powers save for the men who tried to kill you. Three years, Majesty. You have better control of your power than you give yourself credit, but you also have to learn to trust people. I know exactly what I'm asking you to do. This isn't a game to me, and I take my request seriously. Your ice is a gift that can be shaped into so many things. I've seen its beauty first hand, and I've seen its danger, and I believe that if you choose to let me teach you what I know, to ground you in the basics of combat, that when it comes time to work with your magic you'll have better control. At least give it some thought."

Elsa turned towards Revel and he could see the tension in her face, the worry pulling at her shoulders. She was genuinely scared but there was something more there, something deeper than the fear, something akin to determination and resolve.

"And if my power becomes too much? If I can't control it and it lashes out at you?"

"I can say with utmost certainty, Queen Elsa, that your power will not harm me because you do not will it. Like I said, your magic is a part of you just like your arms and legs. Neither of those can harm me unless you command them to, and your ice is no different. Please," Revel said extending his hand, a small smile pulling at his lips, green eyes dancing in the torch light, "at least let me give you one lesson. If you're not pleased with how I teach, or if you feel this isn't something you want after all, we can stop and part ways as friends."

Elsa stared at his extended hand, weighing her options and the Captain's words. If Revel was right about her powers maybe she could finally get control of them permanently. But if he was wrong she could very easily kill him. Fear and reason warred inside her mind for what seemed like hours before reason won and she gently took his hand.

"All right, Captain. One lesson, and we'll see where we go from there."

"Excellent," Revel grinned and pulled her towards the five-foot, cylindrical bag at the center of the training square. "We will first begin with basic stance and strikes. In order to throw a decent punch one must first adopt the correct stance. Observe."

Revel positioned himself directly in front of the bag and took a small step back with his right foot while his left remained planted, toes facing the bag. Arms up in the typical boxing position, the Captain struck the bag with a resounding smack, twisting his hips as he leaned into the strike. The bag rattled on its base and Elsa could see a small depression where his fist had connected soundly with the rough material. Satisfied, he turned back towards the queen.

"Now, the common misconception when it comes to punching is that the power comes from your shoulders. That's only partially true. Really, the power comes from the slight twist of your hips when you actually execute the strike. Here, copy my stance."

Elsa obeyed and shifted back on her right foot, left foot remaining in front of her. She mirrored Revel's boxing stance as best she could, feeling for all the world like a fool as the Captain made a slow circuit around her, checking her form.

"Not bad, though your right foot is a little far back. Move it out just a bit, and you'll find that your balance is much improved."

Again Elsa obeyed and found the Captain to be right. She felt the difference immediately.

"Good, now do I need to show you how to make a proper fist?" When Elsa threw him an incredulous look he raised his hands in surrender and laughed. "It wasn't meant as an insult. There are plenty of poor fools out there who don't know how to make a proper fist and wind up breaking their hands."

"Proper enough?" she asked, raising her fist for him to inspect. Of course she knew how to make a proper fist. It was the only way to snuff out her magic when it rose too quickly into her hands.

"Yes. Now, slowly extend your arm and twist your hips at the same time." Elsa obliged and extended her arm until the knuckles of her right hand brushed the bag. "Very nice. I'm going to adjust you a bit, is that all right?"

"By all means, Captain. I am your student."

"Just making sure," Revel said, stepping up beside her and pressing on her right shoulder until it fell into a more relaxed position. Next, he lowered her curled left arm so that her forearm was protecting her face rather than her neck.

"There. Now, try it again, only this time add in a little speed."

Elsa returned to her original stance, took a breath, and struck the bag again, twisting her hips just as Revel had said. Her fist connected with a satisfying thud and she felt a small smile creep onto her face.

"Good! You remembered to twist with the strike. Now, I want you to try it one more time, but this time I want you to strike as hard as you can."

Again she returned to first stance. Drawing a nervous breath through her nose, she lashed out and struck the bag as hard as she could. The connection her fist made was jarring, shockwaves of reverberated momentum racing down her arm and exploding around her shoulder blade. At about the same time she felt a small, coin sized spark of frost bloom at the center of her right palm and jerked back in time to see a thin coating of ice dissipate across her rapidly reddening knuckles. The pain set in a second later and she winced.

"Ow, that…that hurt a little more than I expected."

"I'm sorry. I should have warned you, but I needed to see how your skin would react to my heaviest, hardest bag."

"I'm not sure I follow," Elsa frowned, shaking feeling back into her hand.

"We'll be training with all sorts of bags: heavy, light, soft, hard, smooth and rough. They all serve a purpose in my lessons, but I wanted to see how you'd react to hitting the hardest. Also, I needed to see if you bruise as easily as your sister," Revel said walking forward and taking Elsa's small hand in his. She wasn't nearly as bruised as Anna had been, which was shocking since the queen had fairer skin than her little sister, but he could see the telltale redness setting in on her second and third knuckle.

"So we _will_ need to use the wraps," he commented, bending down and retrieving a small bundle of cloth. With the flick of his wrist the bundle unraveled into a five-foot-long strip of gray cloth two inches wide. The end he held had a loop sewn into it, and this loop he gently slid over Elsa's thumb and began wrapping, explaining as he wound the fabric. "It is always wise to wear cloth wraps while training with the bags. They help support your wrists while also cushioning your knuckles from the abrasive texture of the bags as well as the friction caused by prolonged striking. Many of my men carry lifelong scars on their knuckles from not wrapping properly."

Elsa watched with curious fascination as Revel wound the long gray fabric around her knuckles and hand before slowly working his way towards her wrist, each layer of cloth overlapping the other. She noticed as his hands came around that he bore similar scars to what he was describing, the knuckles of his right hand primarily rounded off with thick calluses.

"And anyway, we wouldn't want her Majesty's knuckles bloodied and bruised. That wouldn't be ladylike at all," Revel winked as he let her right hand fall and took up the other one, repeating what he'd done to the first.

"Oh no, we wouldn't want people to stare and point. How would the queen feel if people suddenly thought her a freak," Elsa quipped, giving Revel an exasperated look.

"Well in any case, we wouldn't want your sister asking questions," Revel said with a shrug.

"No, we most certainly don't want Anna asking questions," Elsa agreed and flexed her fingers, testing how dexterous she was with the wraps on. They were surprisingly comfortable, reminding her of a rugged pair of gloves. "I can certainly get used to wearing these," she smiled contentedly. There was just something comforting about the wraps.

"Oh trust me, within the next few months you'll come to genuinely hate them," Revel said with a wicked grin. "Now, let's begin again. Right foot back, arms up, and strike."

Elsa did just that, her smile widening with each blow. She just might come to enjoy these lessons more than she'd originally thought.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, what are you going to do?" Anna asked, leaning over the small table and folding her hands neatly under her chin, eyebrow raised. "You're caught; I've got you pinned in a corner, so just admit it. You're done."

Kristoff swallowed uneasily, his eyes flicking from his wife's beautiful sky-blue orbs to the door sitting just barely ajar to his left. Maybe if he made a run for it now he'd get past the threshold before Anna could follow. But no, even in the early stages of her pregnancy the princess was as spry as ever.

"Anna, this isn't entirely fair."

"Fair? Since when did fairness enter the equation? You're the one who wanted to do this, and now that you've made your bed you have to sleep in it. Come along, husband-of-mine. You're just stalling."

"I…I can still—"

"Aww, what's the matter? You seemed so sure about yourself a few minutes ago. What changed, Kristoff?" Anna goaded, tilting her head to one side and giving her husband a wicked grin. She knew she had him, and it was fun watching him twist on her line like a freshly caught fish.

"This isn't over," Kristoff snarled, running his hands through his thick, blond locks and staring hard at the table in front of him. How had everything gone so wrong so fast?

He heard movement behind him and turned to see Elsa rise from her seat behind her desk, four books and a large stack of papers in her hands. She passed by the table where Kristoff and Anna sat staring at one another, glanced down at the chessboard between the two, and nodded dubiously.

"She has you in three moves. You're pretty much beat."

Kristoff exhaled exasperatedly and knocked down his black queen, conceding the game to his wife. "Alright, alright I know when I'm beat."

Anna gave a triumphant whoop and began resetting the board. "A wise man knows when to admit defeat."

"A wise man wouldn't attempt to play chess against a royal, especially _you._"

"Oh don't be a sore loser," the princess said standing. "You've only been playing for a few years. I've had all my life to practice."

Kristoff shrugged and moved around the table to help his wife, but Anna batted his hands away. "At some point you're going to have to let me walk on my own. I've got six more months to work on my balance."

"She's right you know," Elsa said from the other side of the room as she returned the books she'd needed to their proper shelves, careful not to let the pain show on her face whenever she twisted or flexed her torso. "Wait until her baby bump really starts growing. If you think Anna's klutzy now…"

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Anna said picking up a pillow and throwing it at her sister. It was a dead on throw that should have hit Elsa square in the back of the head, and since the queen wasn't looking it should have connected, but to Anna's complete surprise her sister whirled and caught the pillow, spinning effortlessly back around towards the bookshelf as if nothing had happened, pillow clutched to her chest. The princess felt her mouth fall open.

"Wow! How'd you do that?"

"Do what?" Elsa asked without turning, thankful she was able to hide her winces of pain.

_Damn, Revel was right about those sandbags,_ she thought trying to inhale as carefully as possible while her ribs and torso screamed at her each time she shifted. She'd have to loosen her bodice again if she was going to make it the rest of the day without letting on she was in a near constant state of ache.

"How'd you know I'd even thrown the pillow?"

"Dear sister, you can be entirely predictable sometimes," the queen said in a light voice and turned back toward the rest of the room now that her face had been schooled back into a pleasant mask. The truth was, she'd surprised herself. Elsa had suspected her sister would throw something, but somehow she'd sensed the pillow hurtling towards her and reacted upon instinct just as Revel had been teaching her with swinging sandbags.

"Uh huh, I'm sure," Anna mumbled unconvinced, and stared hard at her older sister as if trying to see through her calm demeanor. The princess had noticed a change in her sister over the past three months. It was subtle things that most people would miss entirely, but Anna's sharp eyes instantly picked them out. For starters, she walked gingerly almost every day. Of course, Elsa was always the poised queen: back straight, shoulders back, hands folded neatly in front of her, but over the past few weeks she'd been hunching more and walking carefully, not putting much weight on the balls of her feet. Sometimes Anna would catch her leaning against a door frame or a window ledge as if out of breath. Sometimes a flash of discomfort would arch across Elsa's face when shaking hands with guests or dignitaries, or when she bowed.

Anna had even noticed a change in her sister's wardrobe. Since the Great Freeze, the queen had taken quite a liking to wearing dresses that were more form fitting and lower cut. Nothing crass or unladylike, but Elsa preferred lower neck lines and thinner material, opting for single layers when the fashion was to wear multiple. She'd also found a love for corsets and bodices, but recently the queen had taken to wearing longer-sleeved dresses and replacing her bodices with fitted vests or sashes. It wasn't all that strange attire, fashion in Arendelle changed quickly like any other kingdom, but it was strange seeing these changes affect the queen. No, there was something going on, and Anna wanted to know what it was.

Elsa stared back at her sister, cerulean-blue eyes daring the princess to ask the questions she knew she wanted to ask. Of course the queen had known Anna would pick up on the fact that she was hiding something from her. Anna might be a bit airheaded at times, but she was as sharp as a tack underneath her loose exterior. Regardless, Elsa had thirteen years of concealing practice under her belt.

"You're hiding something," Anna frowned, folding her arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes. Kristoff looked between the two, brow furrowed.

"A very accurate statement, Anna. I am the queen, and it's my job to keep things from my subjects," Elsa said with a nonchalant shrug that woke an aching burn down her right side where a particularly hard sandbag had caught her last night.

"I thought we said we wouldn't keep things from each other anymore," Anna pressed.

"And I haven't broken my promise. I assure you, I'm not keeping anything nefarious from you, little sister. Plus, when would I have the time to 'be up to something'?" Elsa asked, using air quotations. "Between planning for the holiday season and the Spring Trade Summit, when would I find the time to sneak around doing the things your mind seems to be creating? The only time I'm free is during the evening and at night, and I'm busy sleeping, as you should be too."

Anna opened her mouth but promptly shut it, knowing she didn't have a good answer at the moment.

Elsa moved back towards her desk and closed the ledger she'd been writing in most of the afternoon. She usually didn't do any work on Sundays, preferring to keep with biblical tradition and using it as a day of rest, but with the holiday season and the Trade Summit fast approaching there just wasn't enough time during her normal work week to get everything done. Still, she wasn't about to lose her entire day to menial tasks like signature signing and invitation writing, not when the weather was unseasonably warm for October and the sun was shining.

"Going somewhere?" Anna asked as her sister moved towards the door and stepped out into the hall.

"Just getting some air. When you're done whipping your husband at chess, please shut the door behind you."

Anna nodded and watched her sister pad down the long hallway, watching her steps closely. Yes, Elsa was definitely being careful with how she walked.

"You know staring isn't going to get you any answers," Kristoff offered, moving next to her and wrapping his arms around his wife's slender waist.

"She's hiding something," Anna said with pursed lips.

"She's allowed to have her secrets."

The princess turned towards her husband and made a face. "Not from me. What if she's doing something dangerous?"

"Like what?" Kristoff asked with a chuckle. "I can't see our reserved queen doing anything that might put her in harm's way. Maybe she's riding again?"

"_When?_ She's always in meetings or shut in here doing work. When would she have the time to do anything like that?"

"Anna, what if it's nothing," Kristoff said quietly and pulled her close, planting a kiss atop her head. "She's the queen, so who knows what strange tasks the council or bishop Arren make her do on any given day. Maybe she's just not sleeping well or going through growing pains. Her powers have been a little…erratic lately."

Erratic wasn't the right word Kristoff had been looking for, but it was the best he could come up with. It wasn't that the queen was losing control of her power, that wasn't the case at all, it was just that Elsa seemed to be using it more often. Most of the time she used it for pure amusement or the playful torment of her sister. Icy pranks had become the norm around the castle when the queen was in high spirits, and the royal sisters had taken to trying to one-up the other whenever the opportunity presented itself. Without ice powers, Anna had to find more devious and organic means of pranking her sister while Elsa delighted in using her powers to create wonderfully elaborate pranks, oftentimes with Olaf close at hand. But the sisterly pranks had been the norm for three years. What Kristoff had seen recently was what confounded him.

Within the past three months, the mountain man had caught Elsa forming her ice into more questionable things like small knives and arrows. She would examine the sculpture as only an artist could before dispelling it with the flick of her wrist only to recreate it a second later as if timing herself. Kristoff had kept that part of Elsa's broadening ice usage from Anna, fearing the princess would be alarmed to discover her sister was making weapons out of ice. Why she was doing it was beyond him, but if she had her reasons, and wasn't hurting herself, Kristoff would let the queen have her secrets.

Anna sighed and leaned back against her husband, "Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just seeing things."

"Or looking too closely at what you're seeing," Kristoff offered.

"That too." Anna stretched and felt her shoulders pop, sighing contentedly. "You know, it's a Sunday afternoon. The castle staff is really thin right now. We could always…"

Kristoff scooped up his wife and the princess giggled. "I think you read my mind."

Anna went limp in his arms like a penny opera actor, legs and arms splayed. "Then take me away Reindeer King! Off to the blissful silence of our much-used quarters!"

* * *

><p>Elsa wandered the long halls at a leisurely pace, happy for the chance to let her guard down and relax. It was becoming a chore keeping a placid face when her body was a screaming mess of aches and pains. Revel had warned her, but she hadn't really taken his words seriously…until now. Three months of constant nightly training was starting to take its toll.<p>

His first lessons had been the basic foundations of combat, and they ran in four-week courses five days a week. Lesson one had been striking and falling. According to the Captain, they were the two most important tools a person could have when in combat.

"A good strike can topple an enemy just as effectively as a knife to the throat," Revel had said circling behind the queen as she practiced on the heavy bag with the wooden base. Despite having the snug security of her hand wraps on, Elsa's knuckles were beginning to ache from prolonged striking. Revel was having her work on what he called a hook punch that required her to step to the side and deliver a savage blow to the side of the bag while keeping her left arm up. With each punch she felt her knuckles grind against the now sweaty wrap material and gritted her teeth.

"Let's work on your left hand now," Revel said seeing the discomfort on the queen's face. He knew she had to build up a tolerance to the pain -surprisingly enough she had quite a high tolerance to begin with- but it didn't hurt to give one muscle group a chance to recover. Elsa had happily complied and began working on her left hand.

That had been just the striking. Falling came next and it was no less strenuous.

"If you fall while in combat there is a good chance you won't get back up. A man on his back is generally a dead man if he can't right himself quickly," Revel said two weeks into his lessons. Tonight he'd opted to wear a sleeveless gray tunic and his customary black breeches. He'd unrolled a padded matt across half the training square and was standing at the center. Elsa stood at the widest edge, brow creased in slight confusion.

"So, we have to learn how to fall correctly. Here, push me."

"Beg pardon?"

"Come up to me, and push me back as hard as you can," Revel said without breaking his calm demeanor.

Reluctantly, Elsa walked up to him and did just as he asked, putting her shoulders into the shove. Revel toppled backwards but rather than landing flat on his ass, like most people would have, he used the momentum to roll backwards over his right shoulder and spring back up onto his feet.

"Good shove. You've definitely got some strength in your shoulders," Revel grinned.

"Two weeks of constant strike training has helped," Elsa replied with a nonchalant shrug, trying hard to keep the blush from her face. "So, how did you get back up so quickly?"

"Ah, the trick is in how you move with the motion of the push and how you allow one half of your body to collapse. When shoved, a person usually allows the push to direct them, but you can turn it around in your favor by redirecting your momentum. What I did was simple. When you pushed me I immediately collapsed my right leg behind me and rolled back on my right shoulder. My body did the rest automatically. Here, do it again, but watch my legs."

Elsa obliged and pushed the Captain again, trying hard not to notice the sinewy muscles of his broad chest under his tunic. Revel flipped backwards just as he had before and popped back to his feet. Having watched closely, the queen had indeed seen what he'd been describing and already her sharp mind was breaking down how she could copy his move.

"Shall we have you give it a try?" Revel asked with a wide grin. Elsa only hesitated for a moment before nodding and began the second phase of lesson one. It took her the rest of the month to become comfortable with the different ways one could stop a fall.

Lesson two covered balance and speed, and this was where the pain really began to set in. Revel taught her how to maintain speed while attacking, making her train with heavy sacks of sand strapped to her back and shoulders. Sometimes he opted to see how far her endurance could stretch by making her run the perimeter of the training chamber with the same weights strapped to her body; other times it was evasion training, Elsa attempting to evade Revel's advances through quick footwork alone. Usually by the end of the lessons the queen could barely walk out of the chamber, each step agony on her screaming muscles.

But the long hours of discomfort and pain were slowly beginning to pay off in surprising ways. Elsa began to notice a change in her body, muscles becoming more lean and defined, her steps, when not hellish agony, more lithe and sure. She'd never had problems with balance and poise before, that honor was saved for Anna, but Revel's training had definitely made her more surefooted.

Lost in her thoughts, she passed by one of the large bay windows overlooking the guard tower and its small oval courtyard without noticing the large crowd that had formed there. Three or four steps later her mind caught up with what her eyes had seen, and she turned around and went back to the window, curiosity piqued. There were about thirty men standing in a large ring at the center of the stone courtyard, gesturing excitedly at the two men circling one another in the middle of the pit. The two opponents, stripped to the waist, prowled around the ring of bodies, each sizing the other up like wolves competing for pack status. Eventually, one man made the first move, a blinding strike that would have caught his opponent square in the temple, effectively ending the match and most certainly the man's life, but the opposing fighter raised a swift block and countered, dragging the first man to the ground.

Elsa quickly walked the rest of the hallway until she reached a small private balcony she often used for reading during the twilight hours and stepped out into the soft warmth of the mid-afternoon sun. At the railing, she had a much better vantage point of the fight. Her first thought had been to call the palace guards to break up the squabble, but then Revel's words floated back to her and she calmed a bit.

"Sometimes my men just need a chance to let off some steam, so on Sundays, if the weather permits, I let them openly spar in the guard's courtyard," the Captain had said during their first few lessons together.

_So this is how my guards spar…not too certain I agree with the brutality, but Revel knows what he's doing._

The two opponents were on the ground now in a tangle of arms and legs that was impossible to tell apart. Every now and then one man would get in a good punch or elbow, but eventually the second striker was able to get his arm around the first's neck and squeezed until the man slapped the ground three times in quick succession. The crowd, subdued until now, erupted into cheers as the winner untangled himself and popped to his feet, roaring triumphantly. The queen could see the wide swatch of bright blood steadily growing under his nose, but the guard, whoever he was, didn't seem to notice or care. The other man was being hauled up by his friends, his face a mess of darkening bruises and blood. He approached his opponent and the two men clasped forearms, grinning like fools.

"Alright you dogs," Elsa head a familiar voice say seconds before the crowd split apart and Revel entered the ring. "You've had your fun, now let's be off!"

The crowd booed and jeered until Revel was forced to raise his hand, a wide smile splitting his face. He wasn't wearing his customary guard uniform, opting for a more casual blue tunic with brown pants. His hair was unoiled, wavy locks falling around his ears.

"What? You don't want to get back to work?"

Another chorus of discontent rippled through the crowd.

"Well then what do you want?" Revel shouted, egging his men on, his grin growing by the seconds.

"Captain's fight!" the onlookers shouted almost in unison, feet stamping the cobblestones.

"Oh, ho, ho, so you bastards think one of you is man enough to beat me? Well then, who is the unlucky fool? Come, step forward little lamb. I promise I won't bite…hard."

The crowd parted again as a second man joined Revel at the center of the circle pit. He was a head and a half taller than the Captain and about fifty pounds heavier. Stripped to the waist, Elsa could see the challenger was a man who took his training seriously, every muscle of his body defined like sculpted marble. He wore his hair cropped short against his scalp, so it was impossible to tell hair color, but from his pale complexion, the queen suspected he was naturally blond.

"Ahhh Sigmund, I had a feeling it would be you," Revel said with an unsurprised sigh.

"Be a pleasure to whoop your ass, _sir,_" Sigmund said with a growl, cracking the knuckles on each hand one at a time. Elsa felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She had a sick feeling this fight had a personal twist to it. Revel seemed unimpressed and shrugged.

"You can try, my mighty friend." Stepping back a ways, Revel pulled off his shirt and tossed it down at his feet, rolling his shoulders and flexing his hands while bounding from foot to foot, loosening the tight muscles of his chest, shoulder, arms and legs.

The Captain was a well-built man with sinewy muscles that looked like corded rope coiled under his skin. He wasn't unnecessarily bulky like his opponent, but there was power in his frame that bespoke of a man well versed in the art of combat. Elsa felt her face suddenly ignite in a flaming blush and swallowed, feeling for all the world like a voyeur.

The two men came together in the center of the ring and touched fists before beginning the customary circling, eyes searching for a weakness. This went on for a few moments until Sigmund grew tired of the initial dance and lashed out with hook punch. Revel countered easily and ducked away. Again they circled and it was Sigmund who struck a second time, swinging his leg a vicious kick aimed at Revel's thigh. The kick was sound, and Elsa could hear the connecting smack of skin on skin all the way up in her balcony and winced.

_That's going to leave a bruise._

Revel took the blow in stride, shaking his leg to regain feeling in it, but not trading Sigmund blow for blow like the other men had. He continued moving in a slow circle, his hands held loosely in front of him. The big guard lashed out a third time and caught Revel in the face with a meaty fist, sending the Captain stumbling into the crowd where at least ten men kept him from falling and pushed him back into the ring. Elsa felt her breath catch in her throat when Revel stumbled, but now she saw that a wicked grin was slowly spreading across his face as blood began dribbling from his nose and split lip.

"Well struck," he conceded, trying to wipe the blood from his face but only managing to smear it.

Sigmund gave no indication he'd heard and lunged into another attack, but this time Revel reacted and it was like bottled lightning released. Stepping out of the way with near superhuman speed, he caught the man in the jaw with an uppercut that sounded like a hammer striking a log. Sigmund reeled back from the blow, but Revel didn't let him get far. His second blow, a savage straight forward punch with all his weight put behind it, caught the big man in the stomach, driving the air from him. With Sigmund bent nearly in half, the Captain grabbed his opponent's left wrist, spun under it as he raised it in an arch, and flipped him as easily as if he were a sack of potatoes. Sigmund went down hard on the flat of his back, wheezing, blood dribbling from his mouth from where he'd bitten his tongue. Revel continued with the momentum of the throw and brought his knee down hard on the big man's neck, fist raised for a finishing strike. The entire attack had taken less than four seconds from start to finish, and the crowd, queen included, gaped in utter amazement.

"Do you yield?"

Even at a slight distance, Elsa could see that Sigmund was fuming, his face a mess of embarrassed anger. For half a heartbeat she thought he was going to push Revel off and attempt another attack, but it appeared the guard had better sense and sighed, a small smile cracking his face.

"Gods above Revel, where'd you learn to fight like that?"

The Captain broke into a grin and helped the big man up. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Fine. Keep your secrets, but at least show us how you threw me."

A chorus of 'aye, show us' and 'give up the secret' echoed through the crowd and Revel laughed again.

"Fine, fine I'll show you all tomorrow. But for now, polish and restack weapons! Get to it, and so help me if I find one single pommel unpolished when I make final rounds you all will get half rations of wine for dinner tomorrow night. Hold your fellow men accountable!"

The guards in the courtyard quickly dispersed, all chattering happily. Revel bent down to retrieve his shirt and upon standing back up, locked eyes with the queen. Elsa felt her body freeze. She'd been so sure she'd been hidden. Revel's grin turned into a toothy smile and he bowed as if he were a stage actor, shirt snapping out beside him with an audible crack.

_You ass,_ Elsa thought, _you were showing off the entire time._

Her face beginning to warm as blood rushed into her cheeks, the queen politely bowed back, thankful that the distance hid her blush. The two held each other's gaze for another few heartbeats before Revel turned and hurried after his men, shirt slung over his shoulder. He gave her one last grin before disappearing around a corner, and for the first time in never, Elsa felt what her sister had described as butterflies pounding around in her stomach.

* * *

><p>"You were as bad as a stage actor," Elsa said as she spun out of the way of a swinging sandbag as gracefully as a dancer. Three more swung around her like interweaving clock pendulums, and she evaded those as well, keeping her hands up as she did.<p>

"How was any of what happened today acting?" Revel asked from his place in the rafters, sitting contentedly on a wide beam with six more sandbags lined up beside him. "And watch your form when you spin, Majesty. Keep your elbows tight to your body."

Elsa tightened up her form as she evaded another swinging obstacle. Her objective was to reach the other side of the training square where a small green rag sat staked on spear without getting hit by any of the sandbags. If she was hit she had to start over. Once the rag was in hand she had to make it back across the square to the empty basket sitting on a low barrel. The same rules applied from the first crossing. Get hit, go back to start. So far she'd only had to restart two times, her footwork unusually good this evening.

"You played right into his attacks. All of those could have been easily evaded, but you _let_ him hit you."

"Ah, so you _were_ paying attention," Revel said with a wide grin, swinging his feet like a child who was too short to sit in tall chairs. He put a hand to his chest and sighed dramatically, "It warms my heart knowing her Majesty is being a dutiful student."

Elsa shot him a look and just barely had time to dodge one of the four sandbags.

"Keep your beautiful eyes focused on those bags, Majesty," Revel teased.

"If you call me Majesty one more time I'm going to freeze you," the queen snarled, attempting and succeeding in evading another bag.

"It's your proper title."

"It's what everyone calls me."

"Because it's your proper title," Revel said resting his elbow against on one of the remaining bags, happily watching his student spin and dance around his obstacles.

"In the privacy of this room," Elsa huffed, sweat already starting to roll down her back in tickling rivulets, "call me Elsa."

"As her Highness commands," Revel grinned impishly.

The queen chose to ignore his taunts and focused on getting past the last bag, timing it as closely as she could before jumping free of the obstacles with a triumphant whoop. Snatching the flag from the spear she raised her trophy for her teacher to see, smug grin barely contained.

"Back through, Captain?" she asked lightly, twirling the rag.

"Back through," Revel agreed, "but with a little more risk this time." Two more sandbags swung down with a snapping crack as the rope went taut. "That's six bags."

"I can count," Elsa grumbled, watching the chaotic swinging, trying to figure out the rhythm. Carefully, she jumped into the path of the first bag closest to her only to spin out of the way just before impact. This carried her two steps into the swinging obstacles. There had been little room to move the first go around, but with two new bags added she had to move fast or risk getting hit. Steps three and four nearly cost the queen her precarious position, the heavy burlap sacks just barely brushing her hip and shoulder as she danced past them. Step five wasn't much of a problem, the bag already starting to slow its swing, and six was a breeze compared to the rest.

Glowing with a second wave of triumph, Elsa turned towards Revel and barely had enough time to turn sideways before a seventh bag swung free of the rafters and slammed into her with all the force a free swinging, eighty pound sack could muster. For the briefest moment she was hovering above the ground before it came crashing up to meet her with an ugly thud. Winded, the queen lay where she'd fallen, sprawled on her back. The earth stopped spinning after a few moments, but still she didn't rise.

"That was unfair," she wheezed, feeling her bruises, old and new, all begin to scream at once.

"Two lessons were learned here. One is to never believe anything is ever finished, not even our games. So, return to start and try again."

Elsa groaned and held up the green rag as if it were evidence of her win.

"You got the rag, yes, but you didn't get it in the basket. Begin at start, Majesty."

"Elsa," she corrected.

"Begin at start, Elsa," Revel said. A sudden, unfamiliar burst of warmth erupted across his chest at the same moment his tongue began to tingle. To use the queen's birth name so freely seemed like the ultimate taboo, but it left such a wonderful taste in his mouth.

The queen felt it too, electricity arching down her spine and exploding into a hundred thousand butterflies in her stomach. It was scandalous to have someone so low on the social status ladder use her first name, but Elsa couldn't bring herself to care. Sometimes it was nice being reminded she was a normal human under the label of queen, and she reveled in the mischievous glee of having her tutor speak her given name.

"What was the second thing I learned this evening?" Elsa asked, pulling herself up onto unsteady feet. The bag had definitely jarred her equilibrium because everything kept tilting to one side.

"The second is that when it comes to me, I never fight fair," Revel replied from his seat in the rafters, sly grin on his face. He'd suspected the queen would get overconfident at some point, as royals often did, so it was sometimes necessary to remind her that she wasn't always two steps ahead. Kept her on her toes.

"Is that so?" she mused, looking up at her teacher. He was grinning down at her like a fool, and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to smack that grin off his face, but he was up there and she was…

With the flick of her wrist, Elsa conjured a small palm sized piece of not fully tangible ice. The tiny cloud hovered above her hand on a soft cushion of arctic air, dusted with minuscule fractals of ice and snow. She checked her trajectory only once before flicking her thumb and middle finger as if ridding herself of a pesky bug. The projectile shot from her hand and hit the Captain square in the thigh. Concentrating, she willed her ice to stick only to fabric, leaving his skin untouched, and the ice obeyed, immediately spreading. Before Revel could so much as utter a startled cry, his pants here completely frozen and stiff as the wood he sat upon. When he jerked back in surprise, he was shocked to find that not only were his pants frozen solid but they were also cemented to the beam.

"God's balls, that's cold as hell!" Revel exclaimed and began tugging at his pants, trying to detach them from the beam. When his efforts yielded no results, he turned his attention to the queen. "Alright, I get your point. Now unfreeze me."

"Why Captain, didn't you know?" Elsa asked, walking around the training square and heading for the door. She paused momentarily to throw her cloak over her shoulders and looked back at him. "I don't fight fair either. Goodnight."

"Wait…wait! How am I supposed to get out of these?" Revel struggled again but only managed to pull one already freezing foot half-way up his frozen pants leg.

"I'm sure a man of your talents knows how to unlace a pair of breeches," Elsa said, a wicked smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

"Somehow I don't think unlacing anything is going to help me here," Revel muttered with a grunt as he attempted once again to pull himself off the beam.

"Then you have two options," Elsa smiled, reaching for the door. "One, sit and wait for them to thaw; or two, shimmy out of them. From what I understand you are a…flexible man. I have no doubt you'll be able to get free."

And with that Elsa threw the latch and stepped out into the night, cloak fluttering behind her. Revel swore loudly and began the slow process of pulling himself free of his pants, using the beams around him as leverage, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to be angry. That had been a low blow throwing the seventh sandbag into the mix, and he knew he deserved the retaliation. His grimace turned into a grin as he finally slid free on his third try, groin and legs completely numb but otherwise unharmed.

_So you do have a little fire under that poised covering of ice. Excellent._


	7. Chapter 7

Tuesdays: Elsa hated them with such vehemence it could have qualified as one of the seven deadly sins. For most people in her kingdom, and in any other working city on the planet, Mondays were usually the most loathed days of the week. Mondays meant going back to work; Mondays meant an end to the bliss of perhaps one day of needed rest. They were the start of the work week and were the bane of society's existence, but not for the queen. Mondays she could handle; it was Tuesday she came to utterly loathe with every fiber of her being. Tuesdays were the days she entertained dignitaries and heard the plaintive cases made by nobles about various grievances. They were the days she spent a majority of her time locked in a dueling dance with money lenders and tax collectors, discussing trade and the highs and lows of the current season. Yes, Tuesdays were the queen's long days, and today was shaping up to be one of those hateful second weekdays where she seriously toyed with the idea of icing her kingdom one more time.

After leaving her session with Revel early, partially out of playful spite for what he'd pulled with the sandbag and partially out of embarrassment for her less than mature retaliation, the queen had promptly returned to her quarters and gone to bed, but sleep eluded her like fingers grasping at smoke. No matter how much she tossed and turned, muttered at her ceiling in frustration, paced her chamber, or tried reading she wasn't able to fall into blissful unconsciousness until the wee hours of the morning. When she finally drifted off her sleep was fractured and plagued with strange cryptic dreams that made her eyes dance under her eyelids while she muttered incoherently at the dark chamber. It was Kai's insistent knocking that eventually woke her like a bucket of cold water to the face. Startled, the queen struggled with her comforter and somehow wound up slipping off the edge of her tall bed and crashing to the floor in an undignified heap. Back arched against the sudden pain shooting through her ribs and legs, Elsa rolled over onto her stomach and pressed her forehead against the cool wood floor, hissing through her teeth.

"Majesty, are you all right?" came Kai's worried voice from behind the door.

_Oh yes, perfectly fine,_ Elsa thought, jacking herself up into a sitting position._ I've just been getting beaten by my guard Captain on a nightly basis with eighty pound sandbags and wooden sticks until I can't bloody well walk right the next morning without looking like an invalid. Of course everything's fine. Excuse me while I scrape together my jelly legs and crawl to the damn door._

"Yes, fine!" she shouted instead and stumbled to her feet, rubbing her tired eyes and blinking in the soft half-light streaming in through the crack in her window curtains.

"Have I come at a bad time?" It was Kai's veiled way of saying, _why are you still in bed when there's work to be done?_

"One moment," she sighed with as much patience as she could muster, which judging by the snaps of cold wind circling her wasn't much, and fetched her silk robe before stumbling to the door and yanking it open. Kai jumped back at the sudden cold but immediately schooled his face into a mask of apologetic politeness.

"So sorry to wake you, Majesty, but Duke Edgeden has just arrived and is waiting for you in the parlor."

_God's balls, its Tuesday isn't it?_

Elsa covered her groan by rubbing her face and pushing a few stray locks of platinum hair out of her eyes. She'd been dreading the meeting with Duke Edgeden since he'd scheduled it a month ago. The old man was pretentious and crass with a short temper and deep pockets, meaning he believed himself above most common law and courtesy. And the reason for his meeting with the queen was an irksome topic they had discussed many times before, but the old man wouldn't be content until he got his way. No, this was shaping up to be a terrible Tuesday indeed.

"Thank you Kai, I hadn't meant to oversleep. Tell the Duke I will be with him shortly."

"Shall I have breakfast brought up here for you, Majesty?"

"No, that won't be necessary. I'll skip breakfast today in order to see to the Duke." Then more quietly she added, "The faster I get to our meeting the faster he can leave."

Kai nodded knowingly, he'd witnessed the snarling matches the Duke and the queen had partaken in during past meetings, and hurried off as Elsa shut the door behind her and leaned against it, body weary and sore.

_That sandbag really did a number on me,_ Elsa thought as she attempted to take a deep breath but couldn't manage it. When she pulled her thin nightgown off and examined herself in the tall mirror beside her dresser, she wasn't surprised to find a nasty black and purple bruise the size of a dinner plate taking up a portion of her side. The queen winced when her cool fingers brushed the sensitive surface, pain sparking like live embers.

_I honestly think Revel's trying to slowly beat me to death._

Knowing she had no chance of appearing the proper monarch with a bruise as sensitive as this screaming on her side, Elsa gently spread her right hand until her fingers were splayed and pressed it against the bruise. For a brief moment there was exquisite pain before her magic began to do its job and numb the area, blissful relief washing over her like a balm. After a few minutes the bruise was somewhat less angry looking and she could at least take a semi-deep breath without coughing or grimacing.

After that, dressing was a quick affair, a gown having already been laid out the day before upon her request to Gerda. Lacing her bodice took a few minutes longer than anticipated, Elsa taking her time as she twisted to reach the laces. Her hair was the same, done in her now customary messy French braid thrown over her left shoulder. She left out the snowflake ornaments for time's sake and made her way as quickly as her aching body would allow down to the parlor where the Duke waited, pacing like a caged animal.

"The proper age for marriage is clearly outlined in our laws," Elsa growled some time later, clenching her hands together so tightly her finger tips began to turn milky white. She and the Duke had been arguing for three hours now, and her already frayed patience was down to its last scraggly thread.

"Those documents were written a hundred years ago, Majesty. I implore you to have them rewritten and updated. These are newer and greater times we have been blessed enough to see, and laws as archaic as that one should be amended," Duke Edgeden grumbled, thumping the table with a meaty fist, rattling the crystal glasses set between them.

"I am reminded of something my late father would say, 'If a cart already has four wheels there is no reason to add a fifth'," Elsa replied icily, her brows scrunching together in a deep scowl. "Arendelle's marriage law is without flaw, and I will not rewrite it for one man who insists on wedding an underage bride for the sole reason of obtaining her dowry, no matter his station or influence."

"That is not the reasoning behind—"

"My ruling on the matter still stands, and you will obey it or be stripped of your title and jailed. We are done here, Duke Edgeden. My mind will not be swayed."

"This is an outrage!" the Duke bellowed, exploding out of his chair, anger making his pudgy piggish face turn scarlet. "You would raise a peasant to the title of Baron so that the princess could wed him legally, but you will not grant me the hand of the woman I love because she, in the eyes of an archaic law, isn't of legal age? The line you walk between legal propriety and nepotism is thin, Highness."

Elsa was out of her own chair before she realized she'd moved, body shaking with barely contained rage. Ice danced at her finger tips, blue sparks jumping from finger to finger like fireflies as a bitter cold crept into the room. She could have let his comments slide, she could have overlooked his tactless approach to wedding and bedding a minor, which would have been his fifth bride in ten years, but the queen would not have her family insulted, whether to her face or behind her back. That was a mistake she could not and would not overlook, and the sudden flash of fear in the Duke's eyes was enough to tell her he understood he'd crossed a very fine line.

"You will leave my palace immediately," Elsa commanded, walking slowly toward him, cerulean blue eyes glowing with livid anger. "You will return to your small hamlet, go to your chapel, kneel before the altar, and thank God that I had enough self-control not to have you publicly flogged in the Arendelle central square for insubordination and illegal acts towards a minor. You will fall on your face and thank your Creator and all the smaller, lesser known gods of this ancient land that I didn't strip you of your title, land, and servants and leave you penniless in Edgeden hamlet! Because if you don't, I swear to God I will leave you so broken your pigs will eat better than you! Now get out!" She punctuated her last command with a blast of arctic air that buffeted the Duke and made him shriek like a maiden caught bathing in a river.

"A-a-as her Majesty c-c-commands," the Duke stammered as he edged towards the door, body shaking from head to heel. Elsa watched him like a hawk, her eyes tracking him while her body remained statuesque. He made a sharp left the instant he was past the threshold, and the queen prepared to exhale the breath she'd been holding when the Duke shrieked again and backed into the doorway, eyes wide. Half a second later, Elsa heard the unmistakable sound of hooves on carpet and saw Sven step into her line of sight. Dumbfounded, she watched as the reindeer pressed his prickly muzzle against the Duke's torso, snuffling for something under the folds of fabric.

"Majesty, what in God's name—"

"Oh hi Duke I haven't met yet!"

Elsa recognized that high, playful voice and hurried to the door. Sure enough, Olaf was seated atop Sven's back, little stick hands clutching the reindeer's thick shaggy pelt between his shoulder blades and stubby snow feet swinging happily. The little snowman saw Elsa and his face lit up, his already large smile quickly dominating his oval face.

"Hi Elsa!" Olaf waved enthusiastically. "Sven and I just got back from North Mountain. Big brother Marshmallow says hello and look," the little snowman pointed proudly to his head where a small triangular gold tiara glinted in the bright light of the hallway. "He said I could borrow it for a while. Isn't that great!?"

"Olaf," Elsa began and glanced at the Duke out of the corner of her eye. Judging from his stricken expression and pale complexion he was having difficulty wrapping his head around the fact that there was a full grown bull reindeer with a sentient snowman seated on its back taking up a large portion of the hallway. "Why are you riding Sven through my palace?"

"Oh," Olaf's smile fell a little, and he looked around guiltily, "sorry, Elsa. Sven's been acting really funny lately. He keeps looking for Anna. We didn't mean to come into the palace, but he's following her scent….I think. Please don't be mad."

"Majesty, this is highly unpro—"

"I don't believe I gave you permission to speak, sir," Elsa said, snapping her gaze towards the Duke. The pudgy man blanched and wisely tightened his lips. Sven seemed to sense that something was amiss and grunted, lowering his head until the tips of his antlers pointed towards the Duke in what could have been perceived as a threatening gesture. To his credit, the Duke remained still even as beads of sweat began to accumulate along his brow line.

"Olaf, Anna is up at the Overlook with Kristoff. If you hurry, you should be able to catch them. But," she added, raising a finger before the snowman could speak, "you must keep Sven out of the palace from now on, understood? I will not have him wandering the halls, with or without you."

Olaf nodded vigorously, his smile returning. "Oh yes! I will make sure he stays out. You can count on me!"

"Thank you," Elsa smiled and motioned for the Duke to step aside as the little snowman nudged Sven forward. As the reindeer passed the queen and turned back towards the way he had come, Elsa noticed something and had to clench her jaw in order to keep from laughing. She'd not seen it before, but around the little snowman's shoulders hung a deep purple cape nearly four sizes too big for him. Instantly, she recognized it as her lost coronation cape and wondered how and when Olaf had found it. Three years missing was a long time, but here the little snowman was riding on the back of Sven wearing her tiara and cape, looking for all the world like a little prince, and Elsa couldn't help but smile. The cape was so long it draped over Sven's back haunches and trailed the ground.

"Come Sven!" Olaf cried as they slowly trotted down the deserted hallway. "You are a reindeer with the face of a snowman, so we ride!"

Sven gave a contented bellow and charged off down the hallway, purple cape flapping behind him like a flag.

"I trust you can find your way out, Duke Edgeden," Elsa said turning back towards a completely flabbergasted Duke. He looked as if he were about to say something but the cold look the queen gave him dried up whatever he'd been forming on his tongue. "If not, follow the reindeer but be mindful of his antlers. They are sharp but not nearly as sharp as they could be. Remember that."

And with that, Elsa departed in the opposite direction, heading down the hallway towards her study and her chance to finally exhale, but solace wasn't that easily found. Before she could climb the steps leading to the residency wing, Kai intercepted her and informed her that two of Arendelle's treasurers had requested an emergency audience along with a prominent tax collector. It took everything in the queen to keep from groaning aloud and burying her face in her hands. Why did all this have to happen today?

_Oh that's right, it's because it's Tuesday._

So, reluctantly, Elsa followed Kai to where the three men waited in nervous eagerness and began another tedious meeting that lasted into the late afternoon hours. When she finally managed to disentangle herself from the men and their endless questions and requests the sun was making its way towards the horizon line, painting the sky in vivid hues of pink, orange, and lavender.

Exhausted and hungry enough to eat the next piece of furniture that crossed her path, Elsa turned her tired body towards the kitchens, stomach growling loud enough it almost echoed in the hallway. Dinner would be served in a few hours, but she was famished and could feel the onset of lightheadedness, a consequence for not having eaten all day. Stopping in front of the kitchen door to fumble with the tricky latch, Elsa was about to push the door open when she heard a crash and a soft string of curses from inside. It didn't sound remotely like Gerda who would have been on the opposite side of the palace doing her final rounds before dinner. Curiosity piqued, the queen shouldered open the door and poked her head inside. The room beyond was stuffy and dimly lit, all the hearths burning at once lending the chamber a sauna-like air. Squinting into the darkness, Elsa saw something shift next to the open pantry moments before Anna stepped into the weak firelight, arms filled with various food items.

"Really, Anna?" Elsa sighed and pushed the door open, bathing the kitchen in bright light from the hallway. The princess jumped a full three feet into the air and promptly dropped everything she'd been carrying. She would have screamed had there not been a biscuit clutched between her teeth. Instead she spat the pastry out in a hasty attempt to hide the fact that it had ever been there.

"What…what are you doing here?" Anna asked, looking around to see if anyone was following her sister, body tense like a coiled spring.

"Doing the same as you, it would seem," Elsa replied, stepping further in and picking up a discarded pastry. Her stomach gave another plaintive growl and she sighed. It would figure the first real food she'd held in her hands all day would have come off the floor.

"I'm not doing-" Anna pressed her lips into a thin line when her sister gave her a knowing look, one perfectly shaped eyebrow raised. "All right, fine. I'm hungry, ok? I can't seem to get full anymore."

"That's because you are eating for two," the queen said dusting off the pastry and promptly biting into it, not caring one bit where it had come from. When you're hungry enough things like dirt and sanitation just don't matter. Happily, she sank into one of the low chairs seated around the square table at the center of the room, munching enthusiastically.

"Ugh, I'm never going to get use to this," Anna groaned, stooping to pick up the food she'd dropped and depositing them onto the table. She took a seat as well, picked out a doughy roll that looked to have been dusted in powdered sugar, and bit into it with a happy moan. "And to make matters worse, I've been having the weirdest cravings."

"Oh?"

"Onions and pudding, pickles and ice cream, cold boiled pot roast…and you know how much I hate cold boiled anything! But I just can't get enough, and these cravings hit in the middle of the night when I _know_ the kitchen staff is asleep, so I just toss and turn until sunrise when I can run down and tell Gerda if I don't eat something soon I'll start gnawing off my leg!"

"Well, look at it this way," Elsa offered between chewing and swallowing, "you only have to put up with it for a few months."

Anna groaned again and finished her pastry only to pick up another at random and begin devouring it.

"Mother use to have strange cravings when she was pregnant with you," Elsa said after a moment, eyes distant as she called the memory to the forefront of her mind. Anna managed to make a questioning sound around her full mouth in response. "She used to crave boiled beets and cheese fondue, or salted cabbage stew."

The queen laughed at the hazy memory of her mother sitting at the dining room table, belly swollen like an overly full water-skin, eating a special course prepared by the kitchen staff while the little princess and her father ate separate meals. Elsa had wrinkled her nose when her mother had offered her a bite of her cheesy beets and laughed when her mother laughed at her expression.

"I wish she could be here," Anna said quietly, resting her hands atop her own slightly swollen stomach. "I have so many questions…"

Elsa reached out and took her sister's hands, smiling. "I know Anna, I wish the same. But we'll get through this together, you and me, stumbling around like blind fools, but we'll get through it. I promise."

Anna smiled warmly and squeezed back, happy for her older sister's nearness.

"Anyway, I wouldn't make it a habit coming into the pantry and stealing food. You may be fully grown, but I don't think Gerda would think twice about smacking you with a spoon if she caught you."

Anna winced at the memory of what Gerda's spoon could do and scratched the back of her head guiltily. "You're probably right."

As if talking about the service matron somehow summoned her, Gerda walked into the kitchen and pulled up short when she saw the two women sitting at the table.

"Majesties, is there something I can get you?" she asked with dubious gravity, setting her bundle of freshly picked herbs down next to the door and looking at each girl in turn. Even as grown women, the royal sisters shrank a bit under Gerda's cool gaze, feeling like naughty children caught with their hands in the cookie jar again.

"Forgive us, Gerda, but our stomachs couldn't wait until dinner," Elsa smiled thinly, cleaning bits of crumbs from the corner of her mouth with a napkin from the center of the table.

"You I can understand, Majesty," Gerda said nodding at Elsa. "You've not eaten a crumb all day. But you," she turned her steely gaze into Anna who flushed a soft shade of pink, "I've fed at least three times already. Are you sure you're only having one child and not two, or perhaps three?"

Anna paled a bit. "Oh God, I hope it's only one."

"As does my supply stock," Gerda grumbled, moving towards one of the hearths and checking the contents happily simmering in a black, deep-belly kettle. "Go ahead and finish your snacks in the dining room if you please, Majesties. Dinner will be ready shortly."

Both sisters rose quickly and ducked out of the kitchen, giggling as bursts of nostalgia hit them as they moved down the long servant's hallway, arm in arm.

However small the break in the queen's hectic and stressful day had been, Elsa was glad for it. It was refreshing and gave her an energy boost strong enough to carry her through her after dinner activities, mainly signing more legal contracts and trade agreements. Her brief talk with Anna in the kitchen and the nostalgia trip afterward stayed with her as she slipped into her nightly sparring outfit, a lavender fencer's top with a soft brown leather vest, customary fitted black breeches and black boots, and snuck off to the guard's tower for her session with Revel. Lost in thought, she pushed her way into the training chamber without noticing she'd even arrived.

"Coin for your thoughts?"

Elsa jumped and inadvertently iced the door behind her, a thin film of creeping frost climbing the wall like ivy. She spun in the direction of Revel's voice and found him leaning casually against the wall directly behind where the door would have swung open, concealing him as the queen entered. Immediately wary, Elsa slowly hung her cloak on the hook and stepped away from the Captain who smiled at her pleasantly.

"Sorry, this has been a particularly taxing day," Elsa said crossing her arm over her chest and quickly looking around the room. She noticed that the training square had been freshly swept and the weapons on the left side of the room had been moved to the right, opening up a large space that was currently taken up by four large targets. Curiously, she approached the square and looked down the room at the round painted pieces of packed hay.

"No sandbags tonight?" she asked offhandedly.

"No sandbags," Revel confirmed and pushed off the wall. He walked with his hands behind his back and took measured steps, something Elsa had come to recognize as his thinking stride. The Captain came to stand next to the queen and cleared his throat. "Tonight we're going to do things a little differently."

"Is this payback for freezing your pants?" Elsa asked, not wanting to beat around the bush with her instructor. Revel wasn't a vengeful man, as far as she could tell, but he wasn't acting his usual calm self. In fact, he seemed hesitant with an undertone of excitement burning in his green eyes, and that made Elsa nervous.

"No, Majesty—"

"I told you, call me Elsa when we are alone in this room," she said firmly.

"Apologies, I'd forgotten," Revel replied with a slight bow that had nothing to do with formality. "No, Elsa, this isn't payback for freezing my pants, though I do commend you on a marvelous display of retaliation."

Elsa flushed and made sure to keep her eyes on the targets. "That was unprofessional of me to do."

"As was throwing down a surprise eighty pound sandbag," Revel countered, canting his head.

"You're the instructor. I expect you to throw in some—"

"It could have seriously hurt you had you not had the foresight to turn sideways," Revel interrupted. Surprised by the concern in his voice, Elsa turned and caught a fleeting glimpse of regret flash across Revel's face.

"I'm not angry with you," she said quietly, drawing his steely gaze away from the targets and gracing him with a quick smile. "I should have expected there to be at least one catch to the exercise."

"Regardless," Revel said with a sigh, "it wasn't right of me. So, I've decided to forgo your training with the sandbags in lieu of something new." The Captain clapped his hands together and strode out into the center of the training square directly between Elsa and the targets.

"Archery?" she ventured with a shrug.

"Close, but on a more…personal scale. I realized something last night after you left, and I wanted to ask you about it. When you froze my pants, how did you do it?"

Elsa blinked and frowned. "I'm not sure I understand your question."

"How did you freeze my pants?"

"With my powers," the queen said slowly.

"Yes, of course," Revel said in a tone that sounded like it could have been attached to an eye roll, "but _how_ did you do it? What were you thinking of when you sent that little ball of cold air up to me? How did you _only_ freeze my pants and nothing else?"

"Ah, now I understand. Well," Elsa scratched her neck idly and began pacing the width of the training square, mind trying to dissect how she'd actually used her magic last night without causing harm to him. "It's hard to explain, but the way I see it, I first called the ice to my hand."

"Show me," Revel said falling into step alongside her. Elsa obliged and summoned a carbon copy of the same semi-formed ball of ice she'd used last night. It hovered above her palm on a cushion of super cold air that the Captain could feel even at a slight distance. "Wonderful, what happened next?"

"I flicked it off my hand with my thumb and middle finger." Elsa demonstrated and the coin sized piece of ice flew off her palm and struck the floor a few feet away where it exploded into a wide silver pool of frost upon impact.

"How did you keep it from sticking to my skin and only staying on my pants?" Revel asked, walking over to the ice pool and squatting down so he could dip his fingers into the white fractals.

Elsa made a face somewhere between frustration and annoyance, unable to form her thoughts into proper, understandable words. She'd spent countless hours breaking apart her powers in her head over the course of her lifetime, but actually putting those carefully cataloged thoughts into coherent words was proving to be a challenge. Finally she decided to just try her best to explain and hope she didn't sound like an idiot.

"The only thing I can tell you is that I willed it not to go any farther than your pants and to only stick to the fabric. I guess it's like whispering a command to a servant. They obey immediately without question. My ice works like that, or at least has begun to the more I use it. Sometimes it has the ability to override me, like then you startled me just a few moments ago and I frosted the door." Elsa pointed to the now thawed door to emphasize her point.

"So your ice also works on an emotional level," Revel mused, stroking his chin.

"It has the ability to, yes," Elsa nodded. "When I'm happy, I can control my powers without much trouble, but when I'm in a state of high emotion: fear, sadness, anxiety or pain, my powers tend to take on a life of their own. It works on a subconscious level."

"A manifestation of your conscious and subconscious thought into physical form," Revel stated more to himself than to the queen. Elsa stared at the Captain in stunned surprise, not having expected him to grasp her meaning so quickly.

"Yes, you pretty much have the gist of it."

"I had a feeling that was the case, but I wanted to make absolutely sure before we began tonight's lessons." Revel gestured to the targets. "You have excelled in all that I've taught you up to this point, Elsa. You have proven to be an excellent student and have a firm grasp on the basic foundations of combat, so I'm pleased to announce that we will no longer be going through drills or dodging sandbags. Now we begin weapons training, but with a twist. I will again teach you the basics of weapons combat, but you will not be using any of the weapons you see in this room. In fact, you will not be using wood or metal weapon at all."

Elsa understood what the Captain was getting at and felt her pulse quicken. "You want me to only use my ice. Why?"

"For one very important reason. Your ice, unlike the weapons you see lining these walls, cannot be taken from you. Remember the first conversation you and I had regarding your powers and using them while training?"

Elsa nodded, "Your argument was that my ice was the best multi-tool I could have when it comes to combat."

"And I still stand by that statement. Your magic gives you a near limitless supply of possibilities when it comes to self-defense and combat, as well as the added benefit of carrying almost any weapon on you at any given time. So that is what we will begin working on, shaping your magic into usable weapons which you can summon at a moment's notice. For now we'll focus on the smaller end of things such as daggers, knives, and short swords as well as some range weapons."

"Well, unless you were planning on having me hurtle swords down your training chamber, I doubt those targets are meant for anything save for arrows. Possibly arrows like this," Elsa said and instantly a long, delicate arrow appeared in her hand with a swirl of blue and white. Revel blinked in surprise and gently took the projectile from the queen.

"This…is beautiful." Carefully, because he didn't know how fragile the arrow was, Revel slid his fingers down the shaft and over the crystal fletching at the end, marveling how each individual feather fiber came apart and locked back together like the real thing. "This is a far cry better than I had hoped. How did you get the fletching so accurate?"

"Practice," Elsa smiled with a hint of pride. She'd been practicing for months trying to get the arrow right. The shaft hadn't been hard, it was essentially a long thin ice cycle. The arrowhead was the same, she could mold ice into wickedly sharp pieces without even thinking, but the fletching had proven difficult. Sure, she could form a guiding base for the arrow out of solid ice and it would still fly true, but there was a subtle beauty to natural feather fletching that she had been desperate to capture. So after hundreds of failures, Elsa had finally figured out how to make her ice form into individual feather fibers that acted just like the real thing.

"Do you know how strong it is?"

"I'd wager as strong as any ice would be," Elsa admitted with a shrug.

"May I?" Revel asked, gripping the center of the shaft like a man about to snap a twig in half.

"Be my guest."

It didn't take much to snap the ice arrow in half, the brittle shaft coming apart in a clean break. Revel examined the break carefully, sharp eyes following the fracture lines. He even went as far as putting the two pieces back together to see if they still fit one another snugly. With the flick of her wrist, Elsa mended the shaft, leaving behind a small band of discoloration from where it had fused back together.

"I have a feeling that will be a weak point on the arrow now."

"Good thing I can make more," Elsa said smiling.

"It's a pity you can't make them stronger…" A thought suddenly struck the Captain and he looked up at the queen excitedly. "I have an idea. Here, make a new arrow."

Elsa obliged and another perfect arrow formed in her hand.

"You said that when you sent that ball of ice up to me you willed it to stick to only my pants, correct?"

Elsa nodded.

"I want you to concentrate on this arrow," Revel instructed, grabbing the shaft like he'd done with the previous one, "and pour all your will into it to keep it from snapping."

"I'm not sure it works that way," Elsa frowned, squinting at the ice arrow. She'd never thought about enhancing the tensile strength of her ice before because circumstances had never called for it. During her duel with the Weselton brothers three years ago she'd not been concerned about how strong her ice was, just how fast she was able to parry their attacks. But now that she thought about it, Revel's words made a great deal of sense. She had the ability to cast her will into her ice and make it do things normal ice would never do, so it was entirely possible she could will the arrow not to break.

"All right, let's give it a go," the queen said spreading her feet in order to anchor herself. Revel grinned and readied himself, arms already applying a slight amount of pressure to the shaft.

Elsa sank into herself, falling down the long tunnel to where her ice swirled behind her solar plexus in a soft, undulating ball. Tapping into her power was akin to twitching a finger or making a fist, she just had to think about it, mentally reach for the ball, and it came to her instantaneously. Submerging herself entirely in her power wasn't something she often did, fearing that if she went too far she'd somehow lose her human anchor and be swept away by ice and snow, but today she dove deep and anchored herself there. Taking a slow breath through her nose, Elsa extended her mental reach until she felt the ice arrow nestled in Revel's hands. It being the only piece of magical ice in the room, she was able to lock onto it with ease, the projectile practically glowing in her mind's eye. Centering herself mentally, the queen called to the ice and re-bound it to her like interlacing fingers. Even at a short distance she could feel every facet, every fractal, every flake that went into forming the arrow, and she broke those elements down to a molecular level and inserted the weaves of her willpower into the gaps until the arrow responded to her every thought and whim.

_Strong,_ she told the ice in the simple language of water. _Hold strong. _

Opening her eyes, Elsa extended her hand, fingers splayed and brow furrowed in concentration. She physically felt it when Revel began to apply pressure on the shaft, a building tension behind her eyes like the headaches she sometimes got when a storm system rolled in off the sea. In addition to the tension, Elsa also felt a slight burning in her nose that reminded her of accidentally snorting water, and a firm weight pressing down on her shoulders. This trifecta of feeling simultaneously hit as the Captain continued to try and snap the arrow and grew in intensity the harder he pushed.

"This is amazing," Revel breathed. He could feel the ice snapping and crackling under his palms but it didn't snap or fracture in the slightest. He smiled up at the queen who returned his grin with and thin smile, face set in a concentrated scowl.

"How hard can you make it? Is this as far as you can go?"

"Try and break it if you can. I love a challenge," Elsa quipped and took a step closer to the Captain, hand still extended. Revel seemed to love the idea of a magical tug of war and redoubled his efforts, bending in half at the waist in order to get more leverage.

Elsa felt the effects of his force like a blow and winced as the tension behind her eyes and weight on her shoulders steadily increased. Teeth gritted, she pushed back harder, doubling her previous will-push and commanding the ice to hold. The two remained locked in a stalemate for a few minutes, Revel giving ground as his muscles began to fatigue only to muster up more strength and press harder while Elsa did the same.

"You have an amazingly strong will," Revel grunted, attempting to shake away the sweat dripping down into his eyes. He laughed to himself, eyes moving between Elsa and the arrow and back again. Had he been paying closer attention he'd have seen that the queen's extended right hand was shaking badly, finger tips chalky white as if she were pressing against a solid brick wall, her once focused expression morphing into one of slightly bearable pain. Had the Captain looked up, he'd have also seen that the bright cerulean of the queen's eyes was starting to dim as a swirling white-gray film overtook her natural blue color.

Jaws clench so tightly she thought she was going to crack her back teeth, Elsa tried to maintain her hold on the arrow, but she could feel the shaft starting to break. The effect was like being crushed to death. Every muscle, every joint, every bone screamed in unison for the pressure to stop. She realized with a thrill of fear that it had been a mistake to completely bind her will with the arrow because now she was unable disentangle from her magic. She'd plunged too far too fast and wove herself too finely into the fibers that when the arrow began to crack and splinter she felt her mind do the same.

_Don't let him break the arrow! _A voice from somewhere deep inside the recesses of her fracturing mind screamed, but it was too late. The sound of cracking ice filled every inch of her being.

"God you're strong, but I think…I'm getting…the upper…hand!" Revel laughed as he began to feel the shaft bend. He was just about to snap the arrow when he noticed two things. One was a tiny grain of abnormally bright, pulsating light beginning to grow at the center of the shaft between his knuckle white hands. The second was the pained wheeze from the queen. Both of these things caught his attention, and he snapped his head up in surprised concern with just enough time to realize something had gone terribly wrong before the arrow in his hand cracked and simultaneously exploded like an arctic powder keg, throwing both participants back.

Gasping as a cold unlike anything he'd ever felt before enveloped him in icy arms, Revel struggled to rid himself of the thick coating of ice and snow clinging to his skin. He could feel his eyelids sticking together each time he blinked, and his hands seemed to have frozen into immobile fists still clenching either end of the ice arrow. With some effort he was able to open them up, the skin on his palms burning. Eventually the ringing in his ears subsided, and he rolled onto his side, coughing as his lungs spasmed around the super cold air swirling around him. Brushing more ice from his face, Revel pushed himself into a sitting position and felt his jaw hit the floor as the extent of the damage done to his training chamber sank in. Twenty feet in any given direction sheets and fangs of ice clung to everything. The ground under him was entirely ice, great swirling patterns dancing across the floor in a curious design that looked like a snowflake, but it was what sat at the center of the training square that dominated his attention. Revel could only describe what he was seeing as a fountain frozen in time, arms of water stopped in mid arch and twist and left to harden. It was beautiful, it was elegant, and it would have been something he could have appreciated had he not noticed the crumpled form of the queen lying beside it.

"Elsa!" Revel struggled to his feet, the ice making it hard to find traction. Finally he was up and moving and skittered to her side, sliding most of the way on his knees. Remarkably none of the ice had touched her. "Elsa, are you all right? Majesty, can you hear me?"

The sight of dark crimson droplets staining the frozen earth around her made his heart stop, and he frantically began checking her body for wounds but found none. It seemed most of the blood was coming from her nose, streaks of red tricking down her face, cheeks and neck in finger thick streams. He spotted trails of red in her hair where more blood trailed out of her ears and stained her platinum locks like fallen petals of a rust colored flower.

"Shit….shit!" Frantically, Revel cast about for something to stop the bleeding but couldn't find anything that wasn't encased in ice. And to make matters worse the room was beginning to get colder, that or he was finally feeling the full effects of the wintery wonderland on his unprepared body. Either way, the Captain knew he couldn't stay in the training chamber much longer, but he wasn't about to leave the queen, and he couldn't very well take her directly to the Physician without questions being asked. So against his better judgment, Revel scooped the limp young woman into his arms and made his careful way towards a small iron and wood door on the far side of the room.

One handed, he turned the doorknob, hissing as the cold metal bit into his palm, and stepped into the warmth of his personal chamber. Kicking the door shut behind him with a rattling slam, Revel quickly walked to his bed and lay Elsa down as gingerly as he could, mindful of her head and the injuries she might have sustained. Body already starting to thaw, the Captain hurriedly threw on a fresh shirt and trousers before moving with efficient precision around his surprisingly spacious quarters, gathering a clean wash basin, tea kettle, and a few strips of linen from his medical kit. Opening a small high window, Revel leaned out and grabbed the rain bucket he kept wedged under a roof eave, checked the freshness of the water with a quick sip then poured it into the kettle to begin boiling over the small fire in his hearth. What water remained in the bucket he used to wet a linen strip and began cleaning the blood off the queen's face.

"God, I'm such an idiot," Revel growled to himself as he gently wiped at the bright streaks of crimson. "That was an insanely stupid thing for me to ask you to do."

Elsa didn't stir even when he gently turned her head and began clearing the blood from her neck. Some of it had rolled beneath the collar of her vest, and before he realized what he was doing, Revel undid the ornate brass buttons and pulled the leather away revealing the low dip of her lavender fencer's top. Mouth suddenly dry, he stared at the queen's slender throat and bare upper chest, her soft pale skin almost glowing in the low light of the hearth fire. He could see the faint impression of her collar bones as her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, the top of her breasts just barely visible under…

_Shit, get a hold of yourself!_

Luckily it was at that moment that the kettle began to whistle, signaling the water was boiling happily. Thankful for the chance to keep his hands and thoughts occupied, Revel poured the steaming contents into the wash basin beside him and submerged the last of his clean linen into the hot water. As they steeped, he turned his attention back to the queen and on the task of unpinning her hair. In order to see if she'd sustained any cuts to the scalp, Revel had to clear away the now dried blood, and he couldn't very well do that while her hair was pinned back in a severe bun. It took him a few minutes to puzzle out the strange way Elsa had wrestled her hair into submission, but once free her long locks fell in a slightly wavy bundle past her elbows.

"You really have some seriously long hair," he mumbled as he set to work removing the chunks of dried blood by pressing the warm rags against her ears and temples. This seemed to rouse her a bit, and she moaned lightly in her sleep but didn't stir any further than that. The Captain did his best to check for any unforeseen injuries and again came up empty. She was whole and healthy aside from being unconscious.

Work complete, Revel sat back in the chair he'd pulled over to the side of his bed and watched the queen sleep for a few moments, memories of when he'd done a similar act rising into his conscious thoughts. She'd been eighteen then and had just received word of her parents' tragic death at sea. He remembered taking the young queen from an indignant Kai, her weight somehow surprisingly comfortable in his arms. He'd noticed the strange cold rolling off her but had wisely decided to keep mum on the subject as he followed the manservant and service matron to a nearby guest room. Upon setting her down on the bed, Elsa had opened her eyes and stared hazily at him, and that had been the first time Revel had realized just how strikingly beautiful she really was. Of course he'd never admit this to her or anyone else, but it was times like those, and times like these as he watched over his sleeping queen, that Revel regretted the path his life had taken him on and how different things could have been had he done things differently.


	8. Chapter 8

Elsa woke an hour later, hazy and confused. Blinking in the low firelight, she let her eyes wander around her strange surroundings, unsure of where she was or what had happened. This certainly wasn't the training chamber. That was plainly evident by the low light and the fact that she was laying on a wide bed against what felt like a pillow stuffed with a mixture of rocks and sheep's wool. She could smell the faint herbal scent of tea steeping and the warm tang of wood smoke as all five of her senses slowly kicked into working order. When she tried to sit up a wave of nausea hit her like a fist to the stomach and she collapsed back into the lumpy, unfamiliar mattress, groaning.

"Ah, you're awake."

The queen turned towards the fire to her right and squinted at Revel, trying to remember what she'd been doing the last time they'd been together. Had they trained already and, if so, why weren't they still in the chamber? He saw the confused look on her face and took a seat beside her, elbows resting on his knees and fingers laced together.

"It would appear so," Elsa said, hand over her eyes as the last of the nausea passed. Revel felt himself relax a little when she responded to his question. Apparently the queen still retained her hearing after the blast.

"Do you remember anything?" he prompted, leaning towards her, the chair he currently occupied creaking softly.

"I…" Elsa's brow furrowed as she tried to piece together the events of that day. It was like something had blown holes in her memory like shrapnel ripping through oil cloth. She could recall fragments of conversations, body gestures, smells, but as a whole, her day resembled Swiss cheese in her mind.

"I remember it's Tuesday, and that I'd had a long day," she began slowly, pulling her shards of memory back together like a giant puzzle. "Anna and I spoke in the kitchen this evening, and I remember we had dinner with Kristoff a few hours later. I had to sign a few documents after dinner, and then I came here…or wherever we are right at this moment."

"You're in my personal chambers," Revel said quietly. If this bothered the queen at all she didn't let on, simply nodding and continuing to piece her day back together.

"I showed you my ice arrow," Elsa said, suddenly remembering. She'd felt so proud when Revel had marveled at it, warmth spreading through her chest and rising into her cheeks. Then more of the picture began to come together and she frowned. "You wanted to see how strong I could make my ice, and you tried to break the arrow."

"I did break it, but I think something more happened," Revel sighed and looked away, sitting back in his chair. It felt like there was a lead ball suspended in his stomach that increased in weight each time he thought back on the moment just before the arrow broke. He could see Elsa's pained expression so clearly in his mind's eye; her eyes almost glowing with a strange grayish white color seconds before the shaft exploded in his hands and his world was plunged into a hellish cold. Swallowing the steadily growing lump in his throat, Revel tried to keep his face a calm professional mask but knew he was failing miserably. There was no hiding how guilty he felt.

"God, my head feels like it's been stuffed with molten iron and someone's beating on it with a hammer," Elsa groaned and jacked herself into a sitting position. Luckily the nausea stayed away this time, and she was able to pull herself upright. She jerked in surprise when Revel gently pressed a cup into her hands, folding her long fingers around the blissfully warm ceramic sides. For a moment she sat and enjoyed the warmth of the mug in her hands, inhaling the fragrant steam rising from the dark liquid and smiling.

"Should I be skeptical of any food you give me?" Elsa asked glancing at the Captain.

"I'm not going to drug you, if that's what you're asking," he replied dubiously.

"A girl can never be too sure when in the presence of a stranger."

Revel sniffed indignantly and shrugged. "To think, I'd thought we'd moved to the stage of professional friendship. Still, I am your instructor," he said with a half-smile. "And as your instructor, I instruct you to drink your tea and relax."

Elsa gave the mug a skeptical look, knowing she was being blatantly obtuse but unable to help herself. Humor seemed to ease the nervous energy sparking between them the longer they sat so close to one another.

"It's a tea I give my men when they've had too much to drink," Revel explained.

"Do they often wake with hangovers?" Elsa asked taking a tentative sip. The tea had been sweetened with honey and had a pleasant citrus note to it.

"After the occasional Sunday drinking game, yes." Crossing his arms over his chest, Revel took a breath and asked the question that had been bothering him since he'd brought the queen to his chambers. "What exactly happened back in the training chamber; because I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong and where. Did you know the arrow would explode?"

"I'm not exactly sure what happened either," Elsa admitted, shaking her head and realizing for the first time that her hair was unbound. Platinum locks spilled over her shoulders and tickled the backs of her arms. "You untied my hair?"

"I had to get the blood out of it," Revel explained and nodded towards the wash basin on the floor next to the door, its water tinted a rosy pink.

The queen looked startled and began running her fingers through her hair. "I was bleeding?"

"Heavily from the nose and ears. That's why I brought you here. That and the explosion effectively iced my training chamber, but I'm sure it's thawing now." When Elsa didn't respond, Revel felt the urge to keep talking in order to fill the silence. "I figured it would have been a bad idea to take you to the physician since I'm sure she would have started asking questions."

"Very wise of you," Elsa mumbled, taking another sip of her tea. Finally she let out a sigh and set aside her cup, swinging around so that she could speak to Revel face-to-face. "I don't really understand what happened, but I think I might have submerged too deep in my powers. It's….hard to put into words exactly what happened. I remember there being a lot of pressure behind my eyes, in my nose, and on my shoulders, and the harder you pushed on the arrow the stronger those feelings became. When the shaft began to break I…" Elsa trailed off, suddenly at a loss for words. What _had_ happened when the shaft broke? It wasn't like anything she'd ever felt before, like her mind had fractured into hundreds of different shards all spreading in different directions. She had almost felt as if she'd become the ice, her mind, her consciousness, binding with the arrow. When it snapped she snapped, but it had been the back-build of power that had thrown her and Revel back and knocked her unconscious. The actual mental splintering she'd been fully conscious for.

"Are you, by chance, familiar with the Asian lore surrounding warriors and their weapons?" Revel asked.

"I can't say that I am."

"Many Asian warriors believe that a weapon, no matter the size or lethality, is a part of the body as much as an arm or leg. They believe that a warrior's soul is somehow embedded in the steel of their swords, worked into every blacksmith fold from start to finish. It becomes a part of them, oftentimes cherished more than a loved one. Your ice is very similar. It's a part of you that lives and breathes alongside you in every aspect of your life. When you made that arrow it was a piece of your soul, your imagination, your willpower manifested into physical form. When I broke your arrow I…" Revel faltered and swallowed hard, not sure why this was so difficult to say, "I broke you along with it."

Elsa stared at the Captain in genuine surprise, unsure of what to add to his statement. She certainly didn't blame him for what had happened, it was an accident neither of them had anticipated would happen, but apparently that wasn't the case for Revel. She watched his shoulders slump as he broke eye contact and hung his head like a chastised child.

"Hey," she said leaning forward. On reflex, she reached out and took his hand in hers, squeezing gently. "You're really shaken up about this, aren't you?"

"I promised you a safe place to train and practice the first day of lessons, and I feel like I've broken that promise. Bruises and sore muscles are one thing, but you were bleeding, Elsa. My first thought was that the ice had impaled you. Then I saw blood coming from your ears and thought the worst had happened. I've known men in the past who've sustained head injuries that killed them hours after leaving the Physician. It was either that or you'd popped your ear drums. Either way nothing good happened to you, and I feel responsible."

"But I'm fine," Elsa insisted and flashed him a reassuring smile. Revel felt the familiar explosion of battle armor butterflies tumble around in his stomach and shifted uncomfortably. Being in such close proximity to the queen, her smooth pale skin and undone platinum hair glowing in the firelight, he was once again taken aback by her stunning natural beauty. And the fact that she seemed so sincere about not being angry with him, about being all right with what had happened, made him want to believe everything was actually fine between them, but he couldn't shake the feeling he'd done something terrible.

"But you could have been seriously hurt because I goaded you into a magical wrestling match. I honestly don't know what I would have done had you been seriously injured."

"But I wasn't, Revel. You can sit here for as long as you like playing the 'what if' game, but the fact is I'm _fine_. Aside from the headache, which your lovely tea is helping with, I'm perfectly healthy. In fact, I'm more concerned about your health than mine. My ice usually doesn't hurt me, but it's not the same for the people around me. That explosion could have seriously hurt _you_." Elsa squinted at the Captain and leaned a bit closer, aware she was pushing the boundaries of his personal space, "It didn't, did it?"

Revel stiffened as she leaned in, her nearness both terrifying and thrilling at the same absurd time. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest like a war drum and was sure she could hear it to. "Aside from a little frost burn on my palms and nose, I'm perfectly fine."

Elsa didn't seem satisfied with his answer and took his hands in her, turning them palm up. She shifted on the bed and bent Revel at an awkward angle until the firelight fell across his upturned hands. Sure enough, the skin of his palms was raw and red, small white blisters starting to form near the webbing between his fingers. The queen made a disheartened noise and ran her thumb gently across the palm of his right hand, memories of her own hands looking like this coming to mind.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and had to physically stop herself from leaning down and kissing his palms like she would have done with Anna.

"No apology needed," Revel reassured gently, twisting his hands around until they covered hers, fingers and all. "I've had worse injuries, believe me."

Time seemed to stand still as both Captain and queen sat in the comfortable silence that had befallen the room, content on watching the other or delving into private thoughts. There wasn't a need for conversation, the two having said all they could say and both choosing to remain silent as the moments stretched on. It was the queen who eventually broke the quiet, withdrawing her hands from Revel's and feeling the sudden loss of his natural warmth like a physical blow.

"My head is feeling much better now," she offered lamely and silently cursed herself for not having something more meaningful to say.

"I credit the tea," Revel said with a lopsided smile. "Would you care for more? I have to admit, I'm not being a very hospitable host."

Elsa snorted and rolled her eyes. "Of course, how utterly crass of you to carry me in here and clean the blood from my face and head while I was unconscious. And to think you _only_ gave me your bed to rest on, and you _only_ brewed me special tea that would soothe my headache upon waking. Oh yes, you are undoubtedly the most inhospitable host I've ever come across."

"All right, all right point taken," Revel chuckled, refilling the queen's mug and handing it back to her. She smiled and nodded her thanks, taking tentative sips of the hot liquid and sighing happily.

"So you think you broke my soul when you broke my arrow?" Elsa mused after Revel had settled back in his chair.

"That's the only explanation I could come up with on such short notice. Give me a few days, and I'll come up with something more poetic."

"Well then, Captain, you should feel proud," Elsa said over the rim of her mug, a wicked grin pulling at her lips. "You're the first man to break my soul. Congratulations."

Revel all but spat out his tea, coughing as he choked on the hot liquid. Elsa couldn't help but laugh at him, and the sound of her laughter was like a deaf man hearing music for the first time. Had Revel not been attempting to regain composure and breathe at the same time he would have reveled in it.

"I'm sorry, that was mean of me," Elsa managed between giggles.

"I…um…you know there's really no comeback to that, so I'm just going to shut my mouth before I get myself in trouble."

Elsa laughed again and scooted back farther onto his bed so that her legs weren't hanging so far off the edge. She had a slow ache beginning to spread down the back of her legs that probably had nothing to do with tonight's events and everything to do with a stray sandbag the day before. Still a little uncomfortable, she shifted a few times before finding a place between the lumps where she could relax.

"Your bed is highly uncomfortable. How do you sleep on something this lumpy?"

"Well, not all of us can afford to sleep on feather mattresses with down pillows, now can we?" Revel said raising an eyebrow. "Some of us sleep on what we can afford or make on our own."

"You made this bed?" Elsa asked, looking down at the comforter and sheets under her. The comforter was a patchwork quilt of different sized gray and blue fabric that alternated between wool and cotton. It looked old and hand stitched but wasn't uncomfortable or itchy to lie against. The sheets underneath were plain gray, as was the case for his pillow which looked to be cotton as well rather than the standard wool most guards slept on.

"The quilt yes, the sheets no, and the mattress yes. I made the quilt out of scrap pieces of fabric I found lying around, and the mattress was a necessity. Guards usually sleep on cots or in hammocks depending on rank, and after so many years of sleeping on a rock hard cot, I decided I'd earned a bit of luxury and sewed my own mattress out of leftover pillowcases, what fabric I could afford, and stuffed it with sheep's wool and various pieces of scrap fabric. Believe me it's like sleeping on a cloud compared to what my men sleep on."

Elsa patted the lumpy mattress and smiled. "I didn't take you for a man who knew anything about sewing. You are an enigma, Revel. I seem to stumble upon a surprising quirk or talent at least once a week with you."

"I've learned a lot of things over the years and through my travels," Revel said offhandedly over the rim of his mug.

"Oh? You've traveled in the past?"

The Captain could have kicked himself and cursed silently as he took another drink. His past wasn't something he wanted to delve into with anyone, especially the queen. There was just too much there, too much pain and confusion, too much danger and half-truths to wade through, but he'd opened his mouth and, once again, inserted his foot.

"My father, he…he use to take me and my brothers on business trips with him to neighboring kingdoms and hamlets. It was a rare opportunity for us, and we loved visiting new places. I think the farthest my father took us was Rome to see where the Silk Road ended."

"Your father was a merchant?" Elsa asked intrigued. She'd never been able to get Revel to speak about his past or his family, so this was a rare opportunity to learn a little about the mysterious man who was her instructor.

Revel nodded. "He traded mostly in spice."

"What was his name?"

"Gregor," the Captain said quietly, eyes trained on the floor and tea forgotten. He could feel the customary tightness in his chest begin to grow whenever he spoke about his late father. "Gregor Handler."

"Your father was German?" Elsa asked, surprised. Revel didn't have the faintest inkling of a German accent, but that could have been attributed to him leaving home at such a young age.

"My father was, and my mother was Finnish. We used to live in a hamlet just outside Asham kingdom, which was why my father was so heavily involved in the spice trade."

_That actually makes a lot of sense,_ Elsa thought watching Revel while she continued to drink her tea. Asham kingdom and the hamlets surrounding it were well-known for their spice trade. Arendelle frequently did business with Asham, though Elsa had never met the ruling monarch personally. King Adrek was a solitary man who rarely left his kingdom. She would have to remember to invite him to the Spring Trade Summit in April.

"So," Revel said, suddenly standing and moving over to the hearth, placing his mug on the mantel and moving the kettle away from the fire. He felt the need to distance himself from the queen and the conversation surrounding his family, and chose to use basic housekeeping as his cover for moving their conversation out of treacherous waters. "Have you ever had the ability to travel?"

"You would think that being the queen I would, but I've never been outside Arendelle."

"Your family never traveled when you were younger?"

Elsa made a face somewhere between regret and open longing that wasn't lost on the Captain. "My parents had dreams of traveling the different kingdoms with my sister and me, but when I was eight…things changed in the palace."

For the first time since he'd started spending time with her, Revel saw true sadness arch across Elsa's face and watched her close in on herself, arms tightening around her stomach. Suddenly she wasn't the ruling monarch of Arendelle anymore but a sad, lonely girl looking back on memories that seemed to be filled only with pain. Forgetting the misgivings he'd felt only moments ago, Revel crossed the room and sat on the bed next to her, torn between offering physical comfort or just letting his close proximity ease the discomfort of the situation.

"I'm sorry if I brought up painful memories," he said gently.

"No, it's okay; it's not your fault. Sometimes it's hard to look back on the past without feeling the painful echoes." Elsa took a deep breath and turned towards the Captain, thankful for his nearness. Somehow just having him at arm's length was both stabilizing and comforting. "When I was eight, I hurt Anna. We were playing in the throne room one evening, and I accidentally struck her in the head with my powers. After that day she lost all memory I had powers, and my parents, seeing an opportunity, wanted to keep it that way. They limited the staff and closed the castle off to everyone save the select few who remained behind. It wasn't supposed to be a permanent thing, just until I was able to control my powers, but Mother and Father had never raised a child with…special needs. I wasn't able to control my ice, so I closed myself off from everyone in order to protect them. I stayed that way until three years ago when I once again accidentally unleashed my powers during my coronation celebration. So you see why I never got the chance to travel. During my younger years, I was too scared to leave my room for fear of hurting someone. Now I have the duties of a queen that keep me bound to my palace, but it's always been a dream of mine to see other kingdoms. I love Arendelle, don't misunderstand me, but there's a whole world out there I want to see someday."

"You stayed cloistered in your room for _thirteen years_?" Revel gaped in stunned awe. He'd heard of people going to great lengths to protect their family, hell he'd even done it, but he couldn't imagine the pain and loneliness of being segregated from the ones you love because of something you couldn't control.

"I had to," Elsa whispered, flexing her hands and watching tiny blue sparks dance along her fingertips. "I couldn't control my powers like I can today."

"That's why you were so hesitant about using them as a weapon," Revel said, realizing the reason for the queen's nervousness during their first meeting. It had nothing to do with shyness and everything to do with not wanting to hurt anyone. Elsa viewed her powers as a curse, but Revel had never known she'd unintentionally harmed her sister with them. Suddenly it was like he was putting a lost puzzle piece in place, and the hazy picture was starting to become clear.

"I never wanted to put anyone in harm's way because of my powers. It's honestly one of my worst fears, but I realized after the assassination attempt last year that I can't keep running from myself. And with Anna pregnant, I know I have to put aside my own personal misgivings and learn how to protect myself and my family; because that's what queens do. We protect our subjects, and I realized I've got something others don't."

"Endless grace, charm, and a rapier wit?" Revel ventured with a half-smile.

Elsa chuckled and made a face at him. "Flattery will get you everywhere in life, but nowhere with me."

"Apologies," Revel grinned.

"I have my magic, and I have you to teach me how to protect what's mine, which is more than I could ever ask for."

Revel didn't know if his face could contain his smile, but it definitely tried. "I will continue to do everything in my power to prepare for the time when you may have to protect your family; though God willing that moment will never come in your lifetime."

Elsa returned the Captain's grin and was about to say more when the clock on his wall suddenly sprang to life and announced the hour with a resounding clang. Startled, she searched for and found the timepiece, squinting at the hands in the low firelight.

"Is it already one in the morning?" Elsa gasped, scooting to the end of the bed for a better look.

"It would appear so," Revel said, standing and lighting an oil lamp sitting next to a plain wood desk. He would have lit it sooner but had decided against it because of the queen's headache. As the room filled with soft light, Elsa was able to get a good look at the Captain's quarters.

He occupied a spacious room that was more finely decorated than his office had been. Thick wool tapestries hung from the cool brick walls, effectively damming the drafts most tower rooms were notorious for. At the foot of the bed was a large bookshelf stuffed with so many books and papers the supporting shelves were beginning to bow under the weight. He'd set a writing desk under a small rectangular window on the far side of the room, a large leatherback tome spread open on the smooth wood surface. Directly beside the desk was a tall wardrobe with one door slightly ajar, the sleeve of a long white tunic peeking out. A small two person dining table occupied the space in front of a decently sized hearth, and above the mantle hung two ornate swords.

"I must say, your quarters are very cozy."

"It definitely has its charming moments," Revel chuckled, turning back to the queen and pulling up short. He winced before he could stop himself and scratched the back of his head. "Ow, I didn't see that until just now."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and looked down at herself. "What are you talking about?"

"It's best if I show you," Revel replied taking the queen by the hand and leading her over to the wardrobe. He gently opened the door revealing a slender mirror bolted to the inside. Stepping aside, he positioned Elsa in front of the mirror.

"I not sure I'm seeing what you're seeing," she said examining her reflection. There didn't seem to be anything amiss aside from the fact that she was in desperate need of a bath and a fresh pair of cloths.

"Look at your right eye."

Leaning in, Elsa shifted so the lamplight fell across her face and sucked in a breath. "What on earth?"

One half of her eye was completely normal, the white surrounding her cerulean iris healthy and clear, but the half closest to her tear duct was a livid crimson. It seemed as if every capillary had burst on one side, splitting her eye down the middle like a white rose with half its petals submerged in red dye.

"How did that happen?" she asked, leaning as close to the mirror as possible and examining her eye. I certainly looked bad despite the fact that she couldn't feel any difference. She probably would have never noticed until one of the castle staff or Anna had drawn attention to it, and suddenly she was grateful Revel had seen it first. Now at least she could make up a good cover story for what had happened…or at least attempt to.

"I think it might have been from the blast," Revel offered, stepping up beside her. "May I take a closer look?"

Elsa nodded and allowed him to take her face in his hands and gently turn her towards the table lamp. She tried not to notice how warm his hands were against her cheeks or the faint smell of citrus, leather, and natural musk that slowly crept into her nose the closer he leaned in. She even tried to hide the deep blush rising into her neck and face, her skin flushing a furious red, but if Revel noticed he said nothing, retaining a professional air as he examined her eye. Still, there were things the queen couldn't help but notice, like how his green eyes, sparkling like emeralds in the lamplight, had flakes of gold around the pupil or that there was the barest hint of dark stubble beginning to grow in along his jawline.

"It doesn't look like there's been any damage done by flying shrapnel or anything of the sort. I'm fairly certain you'd have felt it if there was."

"Maybe it came from the strain of keeping the arrow from breaking?" Elsa suggested fighting to keep her eyes focused on Revel's forehead or the space between his eyebrows.

"It's a definite possibility, and again I'm sorry. There really isn't anything I can do about burst veins in the eye."

Elsa sighed and looked down only to pull her head back up and give Revel and quizzical look. "May I have my face back, Captain?"

It was Revel's turn to blush and immediately let go. Elsa finally took the breath she'd been holding and exhaled out slowly through her nose, attempting to calm her hammering heart.

_What the hell is wrong with me,_ she thought staring at her reflection in the mirror as if the woman standing there wasn't her at all but a stranger. _I haven't gotten this flustered in a long time._

"Well this is just perfect. I'm going to have to create an excuse as to why half the veins in my eye have burst."

"You ran into something in the middle of the night," Revel suggested, tapping his chin in thought as his mind worked to create possible lies for the queen.

"Doesn't explain why I wouldn't have a black eye along with it," Elsa countered, shaking her head.

"Rubbed it to hard?"

"And only half my eye reacted?"

"You sneezed too hard," Revel shrugged. Elsa glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was smirking at her.

"You know, for lack of a better lie, that just might have to do. Though I know Anna isn't going to buy it at all."

"It shouldn't take but a few days for your eye to clear. I'm sure the princess has more important things to do aside from scrutinizing your face for abnormalities."

"Revel, you know full well my sister is a perceptive person when she wants to be. There'll be no hiding this from her, but a good cover story will definitely keep her from becoming suspicious." Elsa removed herself from in front of the mirror and made her way towards the door. "As for right now, I need to return to my chambers and get some much needed rest. Thank you for…for taking care of me tonight, and I apologize for being an inconvenience on your evening."

"You hardly inconvenienced me, Elsa," Revel said watching her tug open the door and step into the training chamber. By now the torches had burned low, but the room seemed to be back to normal save for a few stray pieces of ice which the queen quickly dispersed with a wave of her hand. She was just throwing her cloak over her shoulders when Revel finally scraped together his courage and cleared his throat nervously.

"I would like to walk you back to your chambers."

Elsa turned and gave him a ponderous look. "I'm not sure that's a wise decision. Should someone catch us together…"

"You and I walked the parapets together for two weeks straight at the end of summer, and my men said nothing. I want to make sure you haven't sustained any lasting damage from the blast."

"I'm sure I'm fine."

"Please, humor me," Revel urged, stepping closer. It wasn't necessarily a lie. He did fear for the queen's safety because of how much blood had been rolling from her ears less than two hours ago. If something were to go wrong he had a sinking feeling it would most likely happen when she was walking back to her quarters, and there was a chance the patrol guards wouldn't find her until the next shift change or until later that morning. No, the Captain wouldn't let anything like that happen while Elsa was under his care, but he also didn't want to leave her side for more…personal reasons. It was strange having these feelings fluttering around in his stomach and head, making him dizzy yet highly alert at the same frustrating time. Revel had never felt them so strongly before and selfishly didn't want the evening to end.

For a few moments the queen was silent, her face an expressionless mask. Most of the evening Elsa had felt a strange crackling energy sparking between them, tides of emotion and heightened senses of awareness rising and falling like the sea. The feelings had only grown as the evening progressed. At first she'd not been able to place what these strange new feelings forming between them were. Of course she and the Captain shared the professional relationship of student and instructor, but those high walls instilled on the first day had slowly crumbled as rigid formality gave way to casual friendship, which was now giving way to….what? Elsa could feel the word sitting on the tip of her tongue but couldn't grasp it. What was making her blush every time she got near Revel? What made her pulse pound in her head? Why did she feel the urge to be coy and viciously sarcastic more so with him than she was with any other castle employee?

_What is this feeling?_

_Love will thaw a frozen heart._ Olaf's words echoed in her head and Elsa felt her heart leap into her throat. It couldn't be that, could it?

_Impossible. Revel and I… no it's absurd. _Elsa shook her head, dismissing the thought entirely. _No, I'm mistaking cordial friendship for something else. He and I are friends, perhaps even close friends, but that's where it ends…that's where it _has_ to end. Doesn't it?_

"Elsa?" Revel gently prompted, tilting his head in order to catch her attention. She'd gone quiet for quite some time, eyes distant with thought.

"Hm? Sorry, I guess I'm more tired than I thought." Taking a breath, she forced her body to relax, stilling her shaking hands as best she could.

_Why am I shaking?_

"Yes, Captain, you may walk me into the palace, but only to the stairs of the residency wing. I can manage the short walk from there on my own."

"Top of the stairs," Revel challenged, crossing his arms over his chest.

Elsa raised an eyebrow, but he didn't back down. "Fine, top of the stairs, but no further. And we'll have to dodge your guards if we're to remain unseen."

"Don't worry about my guards. This time of night they are patrolling the guest half of the residency wing," Revel said opening the door and poking his head out just to be sure no one was around.

"After you, Majesty," he said with a wide smile, enjoying the scowl she shot him when he used her proper title.

"Thank you," she answered coolly, sweeping past him and raising her hood.

They made good time reaching the stairs to the residency wing, but that's where the fast clip of their walk ended. Elsa hadn't expected to be so sore and very nearly went to her knees after taking her first step up the stairs, her core and leg muscles screaming. Gripping the banister with white-knuckle hands, she looked up at the three story climb and stifled a groan. This was going to hurt.

"Can you manage it, Majesty?" Revel whispered right behind her, his breath hot on the back of her neck even through the fabric of her cloak and raising a wave of gooseflesh all across her body.

"Yes, I can make it," Elsa hissed and climbed further, body hunched like an old crone under the weight of her aches and pains. Revel sighed and rolled his eyes, realizing this was a blatant show of royal pride. The queen was trying to prove a point and failing horribly, so before she could react, he moved in beside her, looped an arm around her waist, pulled her left arm over his shoulder, and effectively lifted her off the ground as he stood to his full height. Elsa gave a squeak of surprise and began to struggle.

"What are you doing? Put me down!"

"If we continue at your pace the guards will return and wonder why a strange cloaked figure is climbing the stairs to the residency wing at such a late hour," he said as he began to climb the stairs at a much faster rate, clutching the queen tightly to his side. "They might even be inclined to ask said hunched figure why she's in the palace in the first place, right after landing a few crossbow quarrels in her back. And wouldn't that be a funny surprise for my men to discover that they've just shot their queen because her pride wouldn't allow her to receive help from a friend."

Elsa opened her mouth to retort but realized with a flash of heat that Revel was right. Her guards weren't especially jumpy men, but seeing a dark cloaked figure creeping up the stairs to where the royal family slept would raise all kinds of alarms. They most likely would shoot first and ask questions later, a trait she couldn't fault them for since it was their duty to protect the royal family. Sufficiently chastened, Elsa wisely remained silent until the Captain gently set her down at the top of the stairs.

"There, was that so hard?"

"Thank you," she murmured, attempting to smooth out the fabric of her shirt and pants.

"Always a pleasure," Revel said swooping into a low bow and kissing the top of her hand. Elsa felt her face ignite with heat and was suddenly unimaginably grateful that the shadow of her still raised hood hid her flush.

"Good night, Captain," she said clearing her throat and stepping away.

"Good night, Majesty," Revel replied with a bright smile, his teeth and the sparkle of his green eyes flashing in the faint moonlight pouring in through the windows. He watched as she quickly walked towards a set of tall white double doors that stood like silent centennials at the end of the long hallway. The queen pushed one of the doors open with her shoulder and stepped inside, but Revel caught her backwards glance just before she slipped into her room and shut the door soundlessly. Again he didn't know if his face could contain his smile because at the moment he was walking on air and just couldn't bring himself to give a damn as he descended the stairs three at a time.

Elsa pressed her back against her door and let out a long breath, her body shaking like a tree struck by a sudden strong breeze and radiating so much heat she was beginning to sweat. She clutched her hands against her chest, the left cradling the right, and could feel the pounding of her heart through the layers of fabric. On her right hand, the kiss Revel had left radiated warmth as if her skin were alive with tingling fire that raced up her arm and dispersed across her chest, surrounding her heart like a volcanic puddle. She didn't realize she was smiling until her cheeks began to ache, nor did she realize a short string of laughter had escaped her lips until her room echoed it back at her.

_Maybe,_ she thought shrugging out of her cloak and hanging it on the rack with quivering fingers, _there's something more to this feeling than professional friendship._


	9. Chapter 9

Just as Elsa had predicted, it didn't take long for her sister to notice the abnormality of her right eye. The queen had just sat down for breakfast and was trying her best to appear as serine and comfortable as possible despite the fact that everything from the neck down ached like she'd been crushed under a heavy weight. Even breathing was a chore this morning, her sore ribs making their discomfort known each time her chest cavity expanded, but Elsa was anything if not a capable actress and played her royal role perfectly. That is until a still groggy Anna, who was sitting on her sister's right with Kristoff on the queen's left, glanced at the queen over the rim of her glass and spewed the contents of her mouth all over her husband.

"God above, Elsa, what happened to your eye?!" Then, to a mortified Kristoff, she said, "Sorry, that wasn't intentional."

"Yeah, I bet," he said with an irritated growl, wiping the juice from his eyes with his hands until Elsa offered him a napkin.

_Damn you Revel,_ Elsa grumbled silently.

"What do you mean, what's wrong?" the queen inquired, giving her sister a quizzical look.

"I…your…turn and look at me full on. Yeah, half your eye is red. Did you get hit?"

"It was the most curious thing. I was walking down the hallway when a book flew out of the air and hit me in the face. Apparently we need to keep watch for books that just randomly fall from the ceiling," Elsa said attempting to hide her growing smile as she cut into her eggs.

"I told you those Bibles were dangerous, but you didn't listen," Kristoff mused, attempting to get juice out from under his eye as it became increasingly sticky as it dried.

"Bishop Arren will be so pleased to hear that I've been smacked in the head with the Holy Scripture." Elsa said, grin growing. Kristoff tried to hold back his laughter but couldn't keep it in. As loveable and kind as the Bishop was, Arren was a pious man who could quickly become preachy if given the chance to snare a listener. All three people at the table had been subjected to his ramblings, but apparently Elsa's quip was only humorous to two.

"I'm serious," Anna grumbled at the two of them, leaning over the table to get a better look and her sister's eye. "Did you get something in it?"

"No, Anna I just…sneezed too hard."

The princess gave her sister an unbelieving look and planted her elbows on either side of her plate. "You sneezed too hard. That's the story you're going with? Is that even possible?"

"Apparently so," Elsa confirmed, setting her silver utensils down on the rim of her plate and returning her sister's stare.

"Actually you can," Kristoff said venturing into the conversation with as much care as a man wading into a pond full of piranha. "I sneezed so hard once that I split the seams of my tunic up the sides."

"I attribute that to poor tailoring," Anna remarked, looking across the table at her husband.

"Really? Okay fine, remember Bezum?"

Both sisters snorted with laughter at the same time in a most undignified way. They knew the exact troll Kristoff was talking about. Bezum was a kindhearted, soft spoken troll with a horrible allergy to cotton. His condition wasn't discovered until one of the royal visits after the Great Freeze. Little Bezum had sneezed so hard after hugging Elsa and Anna he'd effectively shed his rock-like skin of mushrooms, moss, and hair in an explosion of debris that left both girls covered in forest fibers and poor Bezum practically naked by clan standards. To this day he'd not fully regrown his mushrooms or moss, having to borrow from friends.

"Alright, maybe you can sneeze too hard, but still. That looks nasty."

"Thank you for not making me self-conscious about it, Anna. I really appreciate that," Elsa sighed taking a bite of egg.

"Sorry. Does it hurt?"

"No, I didn't even notice it until I looked in the mirror this morning. It's definitely going to make my meetings this afternoon interesting."

"Maybe we should get you a patch or something," Kristoff offered shoveling his food into his mouth in great heaving bites. Elsa sighed as she watched him. Despite her best efforts, she hadn't been able to break the mountain man of his poor table manners when in the privacy of their family group.

It was Anna's turn to snort with laughter. "Elsa the Ice Pirate Queen, that's got a nice ring to it."

"As does, 'We are gathered here today to lay to rest Princess Anna, the last remaining heir of Arendelle'."

Anna gasped in mock surprise and schooled her face into a shocked expression. "You wouldn't dare."

"After your baby is born you will no longer be the only heir," Elsa said with the sweetest smile she could muster, which to the princess was just a little eerier since one of the queen's eyes was bicolored at the moment.

"Well, now I'm sufficiently unnerved," Kristoff sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Oh stop," the queen said chuckling. "You know I'd never do anything to put your wife or your baby at risk."

"So then I _can_ get you that eye patch?"

"If you're that willing to go mysteriously missing, yes."

Anna stuck out her tongue and sat back in her chair temporarily defeated, picking at her food until her sister had finished. "So what's on tap for today, mountain man?"

"I need to check the southern harvest site before the snow gets too thick up there to walk through. I'm sure Sven would love the chance to pull his sled."

"Care for a driving partner?"

"I…um…" Kristoff looked to the queen expectantly, but Elsa only shrugged.

"She's your wife, Kristoff. Just know that if anything happens to her or the baby your life is pretty much forfeit."

"Elsa, be nice," Anna scolded.

"It's the truth. I honestly don't want you trekking up into the mountains while pregnant, but I know if I say no you'll just do it anyway. So I'm leaving this decision up to your husband."

"Wonderful, no pressure," Kristoff exhaled, hanging his head as Anna turned expectant eyes on him. The princess waited as patiently as was possible for the energetic princess, bouncing lightly in her chair. She was always eager to hike into the mountains with her husband, enjoying the vistas and the chance to stretch her legs. Ever since becoming pregnant, Anna had to reduce her levels of adventuring for the baby's sake, spending an increasing amount of time hanging around the palace while Kristoff went about his daily duties. At first the break had been nice, but Anna was a woman who felt she had to constantly be on the move, and after the first few weeks she'd gone stir crazy. Now she practically jumped at any chance she got to leave the castle and get some much needed fresh air. It was the only part of pregnancy the princess truly disliked…aside from her infrequent morning sickness and never being able to get full.

"Alright, fine," Kristoff relented after a few silent moments. He just couldn't say no to his wife when she looked so excited. "I can get us close with Sven then we'll walk the rest of the way."

Anna whooped in triumph and jumped out of her chair. "I'll see if Gerda can pack us some food for lunch," she called over her shoulder as she dashed out of the dining room.

"Please keep an eye on her, Kristoff," Elsa said scooting her chair back and easing into a standing position.

"I always do," he replied, stepping out from behind his own chair and joining the queen as they made their way out of the dining room and into a connecting hallway.

"I know you do, I just worry about her. She's too active for her own good sometimes. I know she'd never do anything to hurt the baby, but…I don't know. Maybe I'm being to overprotective."

"You're her sister first, and her queen second. It's your job to worry about her. Hell, even I worry about Anna, but she knows her limitations."

Elsa nodded and took a deep breath, forgetting that she was supposed to breathe shallowly in order to keep the pain in check, and very nearly stumbled into Kristoff when she winced and hunched forward.

"Hey, are you alright?" Kristoff asked taking her gently by the shoulders and easing her back upright.

"I'm fine," Elsa reassured him with a quick smile. The mountain man gave her a look that pretty much told her he wasn't buying her brush off. "Honestly, I'm fine. I just…fell out of bed yesterday morning and bruised my ribs."

"That had to have been a nasty fall," Kristoff said still completely unconvinced.

"Onto the flat of my back," Elsa explained as she continued walking.

"Your luck doesn't seem to be all that good recently, Majesty. You bruise your ribs after falling out of bed; you pop the veins in your eye from sneezing to hard. I mean, this bad luck streak has really gone on for a while now, hasn't it? Sore legs, tender feet, hunched posture, small winces here and there, is your bed really that far off the ground that you keep falling out of it and hurting yourself?"

Kristoff looked back over his shoulder at the queen who had stopped walking a few steps behind. "What are you trying to get at, Kristoff?" she asked warily.

The mountain man retraced his steps and stopped just in front of his sister-in-law, keeping his voice low. "I watched the same things happen to Anna when she started sparring. It's not any of my business, I know, I'm just telling you what I've noticed."

"Has Anna noticed?" Elsa asked, heart hammering in her throat. She knew her question was as bad as an admission, but she had to know if Anna knew, all the while kicking herself mentally for not being careful enough.

"Anna's more preoccupied with planning for the baby, and driving me insane, than anything else. She's noticed a change in you, but not like I have. I saw what the training did to her, and the two of you are so much alike when you try and hide things. Oh don't get me wrong, you're much better at hiding your aches and pains. The only reason I noticed was because I had Anna as a comparison."

"Please, Kristoff don't tell—"

"I would never. Like I said, it's none of my business what you do in your free time, or who you do it with. You're the queen. You can pretty much do as you please."

"I wish that were entirely the case," Elsa sighed and continued walking. Remarkably she felt a little better knowing that someone else knew. Kristoff, though not exactly aristocratic, was as loyal and honest as a man could get, and Elsa knew her secret was safe with him so long as Anna didn't start prying.

_I'll have to take extra care when I'm around her if she's already starting to notice things,_ Elsa thought as the two made their way towards the kitchens where an excited Anna was driving Gerda up the wall with her lunch food order.

As anticipated, the weeks of November sped by at a blinding speed as the holiday season quickly descended upon Arendelle like a festive hurricane. Townsfolk began decorating the first day of December, hauling in pine trees by the dozen and hanging wreaths and garlands of holly and mistletoe like they were going out of style. The first week of December also brought with it the first official, natural snowfall; overnight Arendelle was transformed from simple fjord kingdom into a picturesque Christmas village. Snow dusted every inch of spare ground, cloaking the trees in blankets of silvery white that shimmered in the daylight and glowed a warm yellow at night as candles were lit in windows and fires were built in the square. For most of the citizens of Arendelle, Christmas was the most celebrated time of year, but for one person in particular, the holiday season brought more than just warmth and cheer. It brought hope, joy, and a chance to finally breathe.

Elsa grinned as she watched the steadily growing flurries fall from a slate gray sky from the edge of her balcony. A cold northern wind rolled past the castle, blowing loose strands of hair out of her face and bringing with it the scent of freshly cut pine and high mountain frost. The young queen inhaled slowly, breathing in the scents of winter and feeling her magic pulse and roll inside her like a playful kitten. It was only during the winter months that Elsa felt truly in control of her powers. The colder it got the stronger her will became and the more her ice bent to her commands. Reaching out, Elsa let her powers manifest in her palm as it saw fit, not caring what form it took so long as it left her body. Bursts and curls of frost and white-silver snow joined the flurries swirling around her, and she smiled until her cheeks hurt.

"It's nice to see you smiling like that again," Anna said coming to stand next to her sister. Unlike the queen, who was wearing a simple short sleeved purple dress with a blue cotton vest, the princess wore a warm burgundy wool cloak with its silver fur trimmed hood pulled over her head, matching mittens on each hand.

"I always feel better when it snows," Elsa laughed quietly, catching flakes in her hands and making them dance.

"Do the magic, do the magic," Anna giggled matching her sister's smile. Elsa's grin broadened and she spun her hands briefly, chambering her magic like she'd done a hundred times before. With a forceful push, she threw her cohesive ball of blue arctic wonder into the sky where it exploded into glittering blue and silver flakes in the form of her personal snowflake. Immediately, the natural snow reacted to the Snow Queen's call, coming down harder and quickly blanketing the castle and the rest of the kingdom in another soft layer of white.

Anna sighed happily and linked arms with her sister, laying her cheek against Elsa's shoulder. For a while the two just leaned against one another, content watching the snow fall.

"I love the summer, but there's something so…magical about Arendelle in the winter. It's like the kingdom has a soul all its own that changes each time the seasons change."

"That is a surprisingly profound statement," Elsa said squeezing her sister's hand.

"I have my moments— Oh!" Anna jumped and looked down at her slightly swollen stomach with a look of surprise. She put her hand against the left side and jumped again, this time laughing. "I…I think I felt a kick!"

Elsa's slight concern turned into warm relief as she watched her sister feel around on her stomach for her baby's kicks.

"Ha! He did it again! Come here and feel."

"He? So you know the gender already?" Elsa teased as she laid her cool hand atop her sister's warm stomach and stood still. Sure enough, she felt a slight bump as the baby shifted in Anna's womb and smiled brightly. There was a strange magic in feeling a child, not yet fully formed, shift in its mother's stomach. The queen had hazy memories of pressing her small hands against her mother's stomach and feeling little Anna summersaulting.

"Hello there, little one," Elsa cooed softly. She didn't know if the baby had heard her or not, but it gave another feeble kick before finally finding a comfortable position and quieting down.

"I just have this feeling it's going to be a boy. Kristoff says girl, but a mother just knows," Anna said gently stroking her stomach. "I think he likes you."

"How can you tell?"

"I don't know, just a feeling, I guess," Anna replied, shrugging.

"Well, I have a feeling I'll love him or her regardless of how they feel about me. Now come on, let's get you and the little tumbler inside where it's warm," the queen said leading her sister back inside and closing the balcony doors behind her.

The snow would continue to fall for another week before tapering off, but the magic of the season had already infected the kingdom down to its core. More elaborate decorations were hung in the frosty air, and the soft sounds of church hymns could be heard drifting from the chapel most mornings, intertwining with the peal of congregational bells that echoed across the fjord. And all the while the people of Arendelle eagerly awaited the annual Yule Ball when the castle and the grounds beyond would be open to the public for one night of celebration and merriment.

The winter season certainly made the queen feel more at ease with her powers, but her sessions with Revel weren't getting any easier. In fact, they were doing the exact opposite. Now that the Captain knew she could create what he affectionately came to call will-ice, he began teaching Elsa how to form her magic into physical weapons, and how to use them in combat. His first few lessons covered basic weapons such as daggers, axes, and short swords. Elsa had to hold the real weapon in her left hand and create a carbon copy of it in the right. It wasn't a difficult task; since she could see and physically hold the original, creating a copy was as simple as exhaling. Learning how to properly use them in a fight was an entirely different matter.

As hesitant as Revel was to teach the queen how to grapple, it was imperative he teach her the different techniques of knife fighting and basic dueling. Fencing Elsa picked up fairly quickly. It was a common sport among the royals, and one that the queen was familiar with from watching her father fence when she was younger. The techniques were easily grasped, so Revel spent little time on fencing and moved on to the more hands on knife fighting and defense techniques, though they had a rocky start at the beginning due to the queen's unforeseen nervousness around daggers.

It hadn't even crossed Revel's mind until he'd walked over to the weapons rack one cold, windy evening and withdrawn a fairly large dagger from its polished sheath. He'd been talking about the benefits of different blade lengths and the folding techniques used to hone the blade into a razors edge when he felt the temperature in the room take a massive dive. Startled, Revel spun around just in time to witness most, if not all, of the color drain from Elsa's face, her eyes widening in fear.

"Elsa, what's wrong?"

Realization hit him half a second later that she wasn't looking at him but rather at the blade he'd been unconsciously flipping end-over-end in his hand. Slowly her right hand slid across her stomach and stopped directly over the year old scar hidden under the folds of her clothing, her eyes trained on a distant memory only she could see. Revel saw this, understanding hitting him like a sobering slap, and carefully replaced the dagger back on the rack with the others, silently cursing himself for his stupidity. Of course the queen would be uneasy around daggers. It had only been a year since the assassination attempt, but she'd never shown signs of anxiety or the deep rooted fear victims of malicious attacks often lived with, until now.

"Elsa, it's okay," Revel soothed and spread his hands to show he no longer carried a weapon. When she didn't stir from her trance, he took a tentative step towards her, then another, and another. Eventually he was standing directly in front of her, their bodies only a foot or so apart. This close and he could see the sweat beginning to form along her hairline and could feel the waves of cold rolling off the queen like an arctic breeze as she took breath after ragged breath. Unsure of exactly how to bring her back from the fear quickly swallowing her, Revel knelt and made sure their eyes were level.

"You're okay, Elsa, just breathe. The fear you're feeling is just an illusion; there's no danger in this room." Gently he put his hands on either side of her face, her skin shockingly cold, in an attempt to draw her focused attention away from whatever ghosts she was seeing and onto him. He let his natural warmth be an anchor for her, the feeling of his skin against hers drawing Elsa out of the cloying hands of fear. Slowly her vision returned to the present and locked onto Revel's green orbs.

"That's it, don't try and wrestle the fear into place, bend around it like you would a sandbag. It's just an illusion, keep telling yourself that. Nothing you're seeing or feeling is real."

After a few more silent moments, the queen broke free of her trance and blinked a few times, body shaking as the last dregs of adrenalin left her veins. The room swam back into focus and she became aware of the warmth of Revel's hands on either side of her face and the swelling sense of safety due to his closeness. For just a brief moment, she allowed herself to sink into the security, to lose herself in the warmth of another human body before both reason and reality snapped back all at once.

"I…I'm sorry…I don't know what just happened," she stammered, taking a step back and rubbing at her eyes. Was she crying or was that sweat? The Captain stepped back as well, reluctantly letting his hands drop to his sides while trying to ignore the tingling in his palms and fingertips.

"I do," Revel sighed. "Have you ever heard of the Warrior's Terror?"

"In passing," Elsa explained, absentmindedly rubbing her left shoulder. "My father spoke of it once."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Not really, no."

"It happens more often than you'd think, especially during campaigns. Soldiers who have been exposed to live combat often can't take the stress of killing an enemy or seeing a friend or comrade die in front of them. During the heat of battle the mind can push aside these unpleasantries, but afterword, when there isn't anyone left to fight and you're alone with your thoughts, the images of what you've seen and done come rushing back. Oftentimes soldiers suffer from vivid nightmares or crippling anxiety when around something that reminds them of combat. In more severe cases, soldiers can hallucinate and relive traumatic events from their past."

"So what just happened to me…" Elsa trailed off looking down at her hands, blue and white sparks jumping from finger to finger.

"Is a symptom of the Warrior's Terror," Revel confirmed with a slow nod of the head.

"Wonderful," Elsa mumbled scrubbing her face with her cold hands, "something more to add to my generous supply of unnatural happenings."

"There's nothing unnatural about it," Revel reassured her with a soft smile. "You'd be surprised how many people suffer from it who aren't even soldiers. Anyone who's been in a traumatic situation can have it. I would have actually been very surprised if you _didn't_ have the Terror after what happened to you a year ago. Coming that close to death…I can't imagine a worse trauma."

"I can," Elsa whispered and shivered, the image of her sister, completely incased in glittering blue ice, hand raised to ward off the blow that had meant to kill the queen, flashed through her mind. It had been her worst fear come true, and to this day it still dogged Elsa's every step like an unwanted shadow. Anna hadn't just come close to death, she had actually died, and it was by her sister's hands. Desperate to move the conversation along and leave the horrific images behind, Elsa took another long slow breath to calm her nerves and shook the last clinging bits of anxiety from her body.

"Anyway, please continue with what you were about to say before…that happened. Something about honing a blade?"

"I don't think it would be wise to continue tonight. After an episode it's best to let the mind rest a bit."

"Revel, please just humor me tonight. I…I need…" Elsa hesitated and couldn't understand why. What did she need, and why was it becoming harder and harder to speak candidly with the Captain? Determined to not look the fool, the queen swallowed her unease and plowed on. "I need your lessons tonight. Especially after what just happened and what you explained to me. This fear within me, it's something that can be exploited should someone learn of it. I know in order to be able to protect my family from whatever may come in the future, I can't be nervous around certain weapons. One can be preferred above another, but I don't have the luxury of fearing any of them. Please, you've taught me so much, Revel. Teach me how…how to conquer my fears."

"It's not anything I can teach, Elsa," Revel said stepping forward again and cupping the side of the queen's face, not knowing how his hand had moved on its own accord. For a brief, terrifying moment he feared she would pull away from him, but she didn't move. Instead, the queen surprised him by closing her bright cerulean eyes and leaning into his palm fractionally, exhaling slowly out her nose. But the moment passed faster than Revel would have liked and she pulled back a bit, looking up at him expectantly.

"I can show you the techniques I've learned and taught my men, talk you through the fear, but it's ultimately up to you to master what frightens you."

"I understand," Elsa nodded. "Please continue with what you were going to show me this evening."

"As you wish," Revel bowed with a quick smile. "But you have to let me know if it's becoming too much."

Elsa nodded and the reluctant Captain picked up where he'd left off, unsure if it was a good idea to sweep what had just happened under the rug but seeing no other alternative. The queen was determined to keep going with her lessons despite his misgivings and the lingering unease that something wasn't quite right.

"I don't understand why I need to know the flexibility of a weapon if I have the capability of making it as hard as my will wills it," Elsa said a few days later holding a freshly formed ice dagger in her hand for Revel's inspection. It was a simple but effective weapon, the blade already razor sharp.

"It's the principal of the matter," he muttered, looking the weapon over with a critical eye. There didn't seem to be any flaw in the blade that he could see which didn't come as a surprise. Elsa's ice was always flawless, oftentimes resembling blown glass rather than frozen water. Taking the dagger from her and running his finger along the edge, Revel felt a gentle tug against his thumb as the blade slowly sliced through the layers of his skin. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that he could have shaved with this ice dagger, and it would probably shave off more hair than his straight razor. Flipping the dagger like a juggler, the Captain caught the weapon by its tip and sent it spinning down the training chamber. A dull thud a half second later let him know he'd hit the target, the will-ice dagger imbedded soundly in four inches of packed hay.

"It's unimportant," Elsa countered, watching her instructor throw her knife into the target with an almost flippant flick of the wrist. Unsurprisingly, Revel was an excellent marksman. "I could understand if I was learning how to smith a blade, but my ice is as strong as I want to make it, or as flexible. Hence why that dagger didn't shatter on impact."

"I…alright fine, you've got me there," Revel relented with a sigh. "But when we get into range weapons you _will_ have to learn how they bend and stretch, especially if you wind up having to make a bow or crossbow. Understanding the mechanics is key, but for now you're right. There isn't any point in learning metallurgy when you can control your ice's density and flexibility."

Slowly, over a two week span the lessons advanced into projectiles just as Revel had promised, and it was here that the queen finally seemed to meet her match. She could conjure ice spikes at a reasonable distance, but anything farther than fifty feet was out of range. Or if she was able to raise the spikes out the ground, like a porcupine springing its quills, her aim and timing were off, so Revel erected the targets again and they began the frustratingly arduous task of figuring out how Elsa could project her magic farther with the same amount of lethality as she had when in close quarters combat.

Pushing her arm out to nearly full extension, Elsa released a blast of magic that formed into a squat spike half a second after leaving her hand. It was the same technique she'd used while fighting the Weselton brothers back in her ice palace three years ago, but rather than shooting her ice at the ground, which would raise a series of spikes, she channeled her magic into a cohesive, compact object. The projectile streaked down the chamber at a low arch and wound up skidding into the ground a full twenty feet from the target. She'd lost count of how many failed attempts she'd sent down the chamber, frustration ramping up every time she missed.

"You don't have enough power behind your push, that's why it's not reaching the targets," Revel said from off to the side, safely out of the range of fire. He massaged his temples with his thumb and middle finger, the headache he'd been fighting off most of the afternoon lingering behind his eyes.

"I can see that," Elsa grumbled, resetting herself for another attempt. She sank into her stance and let the bolt fly from her hand with a blast of arctic air behind it but was met with the same lackluster results.

"Damnit!"

"Getting angry isn't going to help."

"Please, for the love of God, stop talking. You're not helping by stating the obvious. I know this isn't working, but I can't figure out why! There should be enough magic behind my throw to send this damn spike sailing through the target and into the wall, but every time it leaves my hand it feel likes half my magic goes one way and the other half shoots out my palm," the queen snarled, hands clenched at her sides.

"Have you tried following the course of your magic to see where the secondary route goes?"

"Of course I have! But it happens too fast to catch, and I'm just…" Elsa ground her teeth with the effort of keeping her temper in check. She didn't have the luxury of losing control of herself with Revel in the same room.

"Should we stop for the night?"

"No."

The Captain raised his hands in mock surrender, and would have let Elsa return to her work had a thought not suddenly struck him.

"Have you ever thrown a shot put?"

The queen gave the Captain a look that spoke volumes about her growing frustration and exasperation. "When would I have ever thrown a shot put?"

"Alright, then let me rephrase. Have you ever _seen_ anyone throw a shot put?"

"My counter question still stands," Elsa said crossing her arms over her chest.

Revel sighed, seeing he wasn't getting anywhere. "Fine, then have you at least thrown something heavy at someone. A snowball maybe or a book?"

"Both, yes."

"Ok, well that's good to know at least."

"Why did you ask?"

"Because I was curious, and I could," Revel replied with a slight tilt of the head and a quick grin, and it took all of Elsa's willpower not to haul off and smack him. Sometimes he could be so aggravating!

"Back to my original question. If you've never seen someone throw one at least let me show you what I'm talking about."

"Why does it matter? I can't see why knowing how to throw a shot put would help me get this spike into the target."

"You know very well there is a method to my madness," the Captain said arching an eyebrow.

"Fine," Elsa said icily, and motioned for him to come and stand next to her. Revel did just that, only instead of standing at her side he gently turned her until she was facing away. The queen felt a flush of heat explode across her body as Revel moved in close, his body heat like a furnace against her back, and suddenly her growing frustration dissolved into obscurity as a new, more primal emotion began to form in the back of her mind. It took biting her tongue to remain focused.

"Forgive the closeness. I can't exactly show you what I'm talking about without having you mimic me. Just, follow my body. First, spread your feet apart like you would in a striking stance."

Elsa obeyed and slipped into the familiar striking stance, left foot forward and right foot back at a slight angle.

"Good, now slightly lower your center of gravity. Wonderful, you still remember your stances."

"Any reason I would have forgotten them in five months?"

"Just making an observation. No need to get icy."

"Was that supposed to be a pun?" Elsa gaped, trying to turn towards the Captain, but he refused to let her move.

"Eyes forward."

"Ass," she mumbled under her breath.

"Agreed," Revel said trying to fight back his growing smirk. It was getting easier and easier to ruffle the queen's feathers, and he was enjoying every moment of it. "Now, back on task. Shot put throwers use momentum to throw their lead balls down the field, but it's how they throw from the chest that gave me this idea. What I want you to do is press down with your left leg and cradle your magic in your right palm next to your chest. The tighter it is to your body the better. When you release, push forward with that same arm as if shoving someone."

While speaking, Revel had gone through the motions he'd been describing, pushing Elsa's hips forward until a large majority of her weight was on the ball of her left foot. He gently grabbed her right wrist, reaching across her back to reach it, and drew it back next to her chest to demonstrate chambering her arm. Slowly he extended her arm until her elbow was at a forty five degree angle.

"That's where you release your magic. Don't snap your elbow like you have been. I think it somehow depletes the release of your power."

Pulse roaring in her ears, Elsa tried to focus on what he was showing her, but every time his skin brushed hers or his breath tickled the back of her neck she had to force back a shiver. The goosebumps racing down her arms and legs were less obvious but no less felt as her scalp and shoulders began to tingle.

"Do you understand?" Revel asked stepping away. Elsa nodded, not trusting her voice. "Good, now try to hit the target again."

Taking a steadying breath, Elsa pushed all other feelings and emotions from her mind as she sank into the cold embrace of her power. Opening her eyes, she focused on the target at the end of the chamber, the red dot marking the target center enveloping her vision. Just as Revel had said, she channeled her magic, only rather than pooling it directly into her palm she let it pool in two places, her palm and left foot. Sucking in through her nose like an archer about to release an arrow, Elsa leaned forward and pressed down hard with her foot before throwing out her chambered right arm, and her magic did two things simultaneously. First it exploded under her foot in a snowflake pattern before redirecting itself back up her leg and leaped from her palm with a crackling hiss. Not expecting there to be such a kickback, the queen stumbled backwards but was caught by the Captain and pulled upright seconds before they both heard a bang from the other side of the chamber. Startled, the two stared in fixed wonder at the foot long spike embedded in the wall, destroyed wooden target laid waste underneath it.

"Wow," he and Elsa both breathed in unison before they broke into fits of triumphant whooping, the queen throwing her arms around Revel's neck and the Captain swinging her around, arms wrapped around her slender waist.

"That was incredible! I didn't think your idea would work!"

"Truth be told, neither did I," Revel laughed, grinning from ear to ear. He looked down at the queen in his arms and it felt like his heart was going to burst from his chest. Elsa grinned back at him, her face so close to his she could feel his warm breath on her flushed cheeks. A half second later it seemed both parties realized just how close they were to one another and disentangled with mutters of 'I'm sorry' rolling from both sets of lips.

Excited to see what she'd done and desperate to hide her radiating flush, Elsa ran down the chamber. Gleefully she examined the spike, marveling how deep she'd managed to get it into solid mortar stone. Remarkably there didn't seem to be any damage done to her ice, so she grabbed ahold and attempted to pull it free. It slid out of the brick on her third try just as Revel stepped beside her, and the two realized with another stroke of shock that the spike was much longer than a foot.

"That thing's almost three feet long," Revel breathed looking at the projectile in Elsa's hands. "You pretty much embedded a three foot javelin two feet into a solid brick wall. I must say, I'm highly impressed."

"I don't understand how that time was any different from the last," Elsa said, dissipating the spike with a flick of the wrist.

"You didn't feel a difference?"

"No, it just…hmm, maybe I did feel something different. That time I felt more grounded, like I had more push behind me."

"When you pushed out, there was a snowflake that formed under your foot," Revel said pointing to the slowly melting frost snowflake marking where the queen had been standing.

"Maybe it gave me a foothold?"

"Maybe. Do you want to give it a try again? Maybe this time you could try not putting a conspicuous hole in my wall?"

Elsa snorted. "Not like you couldn't put a tapestry over it or something."

"Oh yes, wouldn't that look inconspicuous? A random, ornate tapestry hanging in a _training chamber_. No one would _ever_ ask questions; no one would wonder _why_."

"Who said it had to be ornate? I'm sure an old blanket would do," the queen said over her shoulder as she returned to her original position. Hands on her hips, she turned back towards Revel and cocked an eyebrow, a half smile pulling at her lips. "Shall we continue or do you want to reenact the story of William Tell?"

"By all means, Majesty. Let this poor servant of yours remove himself out of your way so you can continue," Revel said with as much sarcasm as he could muster, bowing low like a stage actor as he shuffled out of the way. Elsa laughed and sent a ball of super cold air towards him with just a flick of her fingers. The Captain danced expertly out of the way, laughing and grinning as he did, and resumed his position slightly behind the queen as she readied herself again and chambered her magic in her palm and foot.

The lesson concluded an hour after Elsa had successfully landed her twenty seventh ice spike in the overstuffed target, hay and bits of burlap fibers protruding from gaps in the sack where her ice had torn through. After a bit of adjusting, she'd managed to reign in the force with which she sent her ice down the chamber so the spikes no longer embedded themselves in the wall. Much to his chagrin, Revel now had six holes he had to either fix or hide. Carefully, the queen threw on her cloak, favoring her right shoulder. She'd not anticipated the amount of kickback her power would produce when chambered as Revel had shown her, and the muscle was starting to make its discomfort known.

_Just another ache to add to the rest of them, _Elsa thought with a small smile, her good mood overriding any current unpleasantness. She felt she'd accomplished a lot this evening, not exactly mastering projectile ice but definitely getting a firmer grasp of what she needed to do to make it work. Her mood was so good, in fact, that when Revel approached to do his nightly goodbye ritual, bowing to the queen and holding the door open for her, she surprised him by pulling an envelope from an inner cloak pocket and handing it to him.

"What's this?" he asked taking the rich manila envelope and flipping it over to reveal the stylized snowflake of Arendelle's royal wax seal.

"I assume you have the capability to read, Captain. Open it and see," Elsa motioned with a broad smile.

Revel carefully pried off the wax seal and withdrew a perfectly folded piece of ornate paper. His eyes quickly skimmed the delicate scrawling handwriting that had undoubtedly come from the queen's own hand.

"This is a personal invitation to…the Yule Ball," Revel said looking over the top of the paper at Elsa, his eyebrows shooting up into his hairline. The annual Yule Ball was a prestigious affair, and only a lucky few were invited to share in the festivities with the Arendelle royal family. That wasn't to say the queen and her sister didn't make painful strides to ensure that the entire kingdom joined in on the holiday celebration, but the Yule Ball was held after the more common festivities had ended Christmas Eve and was invitation only. It was an invitation Captain Revel hadn't been expecting to receive from anyone, especially personally from the queen.

"Very perceptive, Revel. The details of the ball are listed further down."

"I…um…"

"Is something wrong?" Elsa asked cocking an eyebrow.

"No, it's just…are you sure you want me in attendance?"

"I wouldn't have just given you that invitation had I not," the queen said with a confused look. "If you would prefer not to come—"

"No!" Revel interjected a little louder than planned and swore inwardly. Clearing his throat he tried again. "I mean, no, I'd love to come. I just didn't expect a personal invitation. Usually I'm on duty that night, so it will be strange walking amongst the nobles."

"You did it for my sister's wedding."

"I did, didn't I?" Revel smiled and suddenly felt the all too familiar explosion of battle armor butterflies in his stomach. "Well then, I will gladly attend your ball, Majesty. And perhaps you will save at least one dance for your instructor?"

Elsa laughed and felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She'd been dreading giving Revel the invitation, and when he'd seemed confused and hesitant at first it took every ounce of will to keep from bolting out the door and hiding her embarrassment in the shadows.

"I look forward to seeing how you perform on the dance floor."

It was Revel's turn to laugh as he bowed and reached for the door handle. "You doubt my skill?"

"Why, not at all," Elsa gasped with mock indignation. "I just recall that you were dancing with a Duke's daughter the last time I saw you in the ballroom. If you dance with me, you'll be dancing with a queen."

"Does station have anything to do with skill or ability?"

"Oh of course not, but where a Duke's daughter has been taught the basics of most urban dance, a woman of my station has had access to a much broader spectrum. To put it simply, I don't think you'll be able to keep up, Captain."

"Is that a challenge?" Revel inquired with a broad grin.

Elsa shrugged but was unable to hide her own smile. "Take it as you will. You have two weeks to practice. Good night, Captain."

* * *

><p>The queen woke with a start when something large and heavy landed across her legs, causing her bed to bounce fractionally. Sitting up with a gasp, she attempted to backpedal from whatever was weighing her feet down, mind still foggy with sleep. Bleary eyed, she blinked in the semi-darkness of her room, weak shafts of light coming in through the crack in the curtain covering her large triangular window. A hundred thoughts flashed through her mind, but her lips only managed to fumble around one as she looked down at her legs.<p>

"What in God's name…Anna? What are you doing?"

"Good morning!" Anna exclaimed with a cheery smile that lit up her rosy face and practically made her bright blue eyes shine. "Wake up, wake up, wake up! It's time to get up!"

"If the sky's not awake then I'm not awake," Elsa slurred, scrubbing her face with her hands. Her internal clock told her she had at least another hour of sleep before getting up.

"The sun's been up for _hours _now! Come on, we need to get ready!"

"Wait, what time is it?"

Anna squinted at the small clock on her sister's dresser. "Six ten in the morning."

The queen groaned and flopped back down into the blissful comfort of her feather pillows and threw an arm over her eyes, unbraided hair fanning out around her. Weren't the roles supposed to be reversed? Wasn't it usually her dragging Anna out of bed?

"Anna, dear, we have a full six hours before any of the guests start arriving."

"I know! But I want to get started decorating as soon as possible," Anna said pulling herself up into a sitting position and very nearly bouncing with excitement. Christmas Eve was her favorite holiday, save for Christmas Day. It was the only time of year she could run around the palace at full tilt hanging decorations and planning the celebration that would take place that afternoon with the town's people.

"Why don't you have Kristoff help you, or better yet, have Olaf decorate, and let your poor sister get a few more hours of sleep."

"Because it's not the same without you, and Olaf would come and wake you up himself if given the chance," Anna pointed out, flopping on her back next to her sister, hand on her swollen belly to help steady herself.

Elsa peeked out from under her arm at her sister, unable to keep a smile off her face. Anna was practically vibrating with eagerness and holiday cheer and it was apparently infectious. The princess saw her looking and snuggled closer.

"Please come and decorate with us. _Please?_" When the queen didn't budge, Anna resorted to more mischievous tactics and firmly poked Elsa in the side just below her ribcage. The queen gave a startled squeak and shifted fractionally. With a grin so wide her face was starting to ache, Anna poked her sister again, this time in a quick succession of three. Elsa all but fell out of bed, fighting back giggles as she rolled away.

"That's not fair, you know where I'm ticklish!"

"Which is why I'm doing it!" Anna cackled and lunged at her older sister, catching her with both hands and wriggling her fingers like she would if scratching Sven's muzzle. Elsa let out a sound somewhere between a scream and a laugh and tried to twist away, but the princess had her pinned and was a relentless foe.

"Alright, alright! Stop tickling me, and I'll get out of bed!"

"Ha!" Anna immediately relented and sat back with a satisfied smile. "Works every time."

"So does this," Elsa said planting her right hand atop Anna's head and letting her magic loose in a burst of frigid air. She'd done this enough times to know where to send her magic, and a split second later Anna's hair was completely frozen in place.

"Oh really? _Really?!_" Anna protested, grabbing hold of one of her braids only to find it as unyielding as stone. "It took me forever to get my hair braided this morning! Unfreeze me!"

"No, I think you look better this way," Elsa beamed, throwing her tangle of covers back and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She jumped away when Anna tried to grab at her and quickly headed for her large walk-in closet.

"It's going to take hours for this to unfreeze!"

"Not if you sit by the fire it won't," Elsa said from inside her closet.

"Please, Elsa!" Anna pleaded attempting to follow her sister only to be met with a locked door.

"You're the one who woke me up a full six hours before guests even start arriving."

"You would have been up in an hour anyway!" Anna pointed out, pounding on the thin wood with the flat of her palm. "You said there'd be no more locked doors between us!"

"Room doors, not dressing room doors. Can't a woman get a little privacy?"

Anna could hear the laughter in her sister's voice and huffed, tentatively touching the top of her head. Her hair was locked down under a glass smooth sheet of ice that resembled a helmet with two long braids hanging off the sides. A knock at the room door startled the princess, and she quickly walked over and pulled the heavy white door open. Kristoff stood in the hallway, yawning and rubbing his face, but his eyebrows shot into his hairline when he saw Anna. Wisely he attempted not to laugh, stifling a string of giggles bubbling into his throat.

"Not a word from you," Anna said darkly stepping out into the hallway.

"I told you it was a bad idea to wake her up early," the mountain man said with a grin. He poked the side of Anna's head and chuckled. "I looks like you're wearing a hair helmet."

"This isn't funny!"

"You're right; it's hysterical."

Anna pushed him and crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. "I just wanted to start decorating as soon as possible."

"Well, why don't we let her Majesty join us when she's ready? You and I can get started right after I eat something. You should eat too."

"After the bout of morning sickness I had just a little while ago, I'm not very hungry."

"At least try and eat something. The physician said you should eat at least twice a day if you can," Kristoff said putting his arm around is pregnant wife's shoulders and guiding her towards the kitchens, all the while trying not to laugh at her unmoving, icy blue hair.

As predicted, Elsa joined her sister and Kristoff a half hour later after having thrown on a comfortable purple dress and a black suede bodice with purple and silver embroidery. Her hair was done in her now customary Dutch braid slung over her left shoulder, glittering snowflakes carefully pinned in place along the length of the braid.

"Good morning," Elsa greeted, taking her place at the head of the table in the dining room. Kristoff smiled and offered her a good morning as well, but Anna seemed more interested in her toast than the queen.

"Oh Anna, stop pouting," Elsa chuckled.

"My head's cold and there's ice water dripping down my back," the princess grumbled in response. Elsa rolled her eyes and dispersed the ice covering her sister's head with a flick of her wrist.

"There, is that better?"

"Head's still wet," Anna groused pursing her lips.

"Well, until I master the element of fire, I can't help you there. Maybe Kristoff can blow on it for you and dry you off."

That seemed to elicit a response from the princess who cracked a slight smile at her sister's suggestion. The three ate their small breakfasts quickly before setting to work decorating the castle like they'd done for the past three Christmases. It was a tradition the royal sisters' had grown up with. Every Christmas Eve, the girls would join their mother and father in drenching the castle in holiday décor ranging from wreaths to endless strands of garland to handmade ornaments and decorative candles. A pine tree was always brought in by the royal woodsmen and erected in the dining room next to the large fireplace. Elsa and Anna took turns placing ornaments all over the tree until it practically sagged under the weight, then it was off to bed so Saint Nicholas would come and leave them gifts. The tradition, however, had fallen into disuse after the late King and Queen's death, neither sister really feeling the pull of the holidays. After the Great Freeze, Anna had rekindled the tradition, and it had grown exponentially more intricate ever since.

It had ultimately been Anna's idea to include the townspeople in their celebration too. The Christmas directly following the Great Freeze, the princess had approached her sister with the idea of opening up the castle courtyard and Great Hall to the public, especially Arendelle's children. She'd suggested finding the tallest, largest pine tree in the mountains surrounding the city and bringing it back to the castle for the town's children to come and decorate. Anna reasoned it was a way for the people of Arendelle to get to know their mysterious icy monarch while also getting Elsa used to public interaction. The queen was hesitant at first, but as always her sister was persuasive and Elsa agreed to open the gates and allow the public to enter.

That first Christmas with the children had been eye opening for the queen. She'd expected no one to show for the event, their fear keeping them as far from the Snow Queen as possible, but Elsa couldn't have been more wrong. At noon the gates opened and at least three hundred people made the short walk over the castle bridge to the courtyard and gathered there in an excited cluster. The queen could see from where she stood on the steps next to her sister, Kristoff, and a practically vibrating Olaf, that many of the children and their parents had brought their own ornaments. Those who didn't have anything still looked on excitedly as their queen said a few words, mostly thanking them for coming and wishing them a happy holiday, before stepping aside and opening the castle doors with the flick of her wrist. Unbeknownst to the public, Elsa had iced the hinges in order to control them, giving the already electric moment a boost of stage magic. With eager whoops and shouts, the children poured into the Great Hall and surrounded the twenty foot Christmas tree dusted in a light layer of frost and crowned with a massive ice snowflake at its peak.

And so the first tree decorating event began, Kristoff and Anna venturing up the wooden ladders secured to the tree to hang ornaments while Elsa and Olaf sat at the base helping the few children without ornaments make their own. Elsa could still remember quite vividly the first child she'd made an ice ornament for. She'd been a young girl about seven or eight whose family didn't have enough money to buy their own ornaments.

"I'm sorry, Majesty, I didn't bring anything with me," the little girl said sheepishly, staring at her feet while she spoke. "Can I still watch them decorate?"

Elsa had knelt in front of the child and lifted her head gently, a wide smile on her face. "Of course you can little one, but you should still have an ornament of your own. Tell me, what's your favorite animal?"

The little girl blushed furiously and kicked her feet. "I always liked bears because my Papa tells me stories about the Bear Queen in Scotland who talks to will-o-wisps."

"Well, a bear I can certainly do," Elsa said and held out her palm for the little girl to see. Swallowing the lump of unease growing in her throat -this was, after all, the first time she'd be using her magic out in the open since thawing her kingdom- the queen cupped her left hand over her right and let her magic pool between her palms, closing her eyes briefly to concentrate on what she wanted her ice to form into. Upon opening her eyes, Elsa slowly pulled her palms apart, revealing tiny blue and silver flakes and fractals swirling like a dervish. With the slightest push from her mind, the swirling ball of magic took form, quickly becoming an ornate bear standing on its hind legs. Blowing gently on the ice sculpture, the queen removed the last shreds of her magic before offering the little girl her ornament.

For half a heartbeat the little girl didn't move, just stared in wide eyed wonder at the ice sculpture. Then with shaking hands she reached out and gently picked up the bear, turning it over and over, inspecting every crevice and sculptural line. When she looked back at Elsa the queen was shocked to see tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong, little one?" Elsa asked in concern.

"No one's ever made me something so pretty," the little girl whispered before breaking free of her trance and throwing her arms around the queen's neck. Startled, Elsa drew back but the little girl clung on, tightening her grip. It was at that moment that the queen felt two things simultaneously. One was the complete shattering of her previously felt fear about how the town's folk would react to her magic, and two was an explosion of such profound warmth in her chest she felt tears well in her eyes as she hugged the little girl back.

"You're welcome, little one."

"My name's Sonja," the little girl said pulling away and wiping the tears from her eyes.

"You're welcome, Sonja. You can keep that ornament if you'd like. I can always make more."

"Can you make more for the rest of us?" Sonja asked with a hopeful smile.

"Rest of you?" Elsa asked, brow creasing in confusion.

"There are a bunch of people in the back who don't have ornaments. Can you make them some too?"

The queen smiled and told Sonja to go and round up all the children who didn't have ornaments. She sent Olaf to help and quickly explained to Anna what was going on. Happy to help, and relieved to see her sister finally opening up, the princess joined Olaf and brought the sheepish children up so that Elsa could make them an ornament. Sonja at her side, the queen went from child to child and helped them create a unique piece of art to hang on the tree, and by the end of the afternoon the great pine shimmered with so many glass smooth ornaments it looked like it was nearly encased in ice.

That had been the first year. The tree decorating event had only grown as the years marched on. Now, not only did the children of Arendelle decorate the massive pine tree in the Great Hall, they also got to enjoy a small ball of their own, complete with food and games to entertain both children and adults. The celebration lasted from noon till four in the afternoon when the party moved exclusively to the courtyard so that the servant staff could give the castle a quick cleaning and resetting before the more prestigious event of the night, the Yule Ball, began at six.

This year's tree decorating event went off without a hitch with nearly four hundred people all gathering afterword in the ballroom for refreshments and merriment. The royal sisters made a couple circuits around the room, talking with various people and joining in a few games before departing and letting the festivities continue without them. At four, the ballroom and Great Hall were cleared, all four hundred people herded into the courtyard where more games were erected along with a scattering of mobile food stalls from the wharf and hot beverages provided by the castle staff. At the behest of Kai, the ballroom and all rooms on the lower level of the castle were cleaned and reset. At five forty five sharp the first carriage arrived, a man and woman dressed in courtly attire stepping primly from their vehicle and walking arm-in-arm into the castle Great Hall, signaling that the Yule Ball was now underway. By six there were at least a hundred guests gathered in the ballroom and more arriving every couple of minutes, invitations in hand. When the queen and her sister finally made their way into the ballroom, their arrival announced by Kai, the Yule Ball began in earnest, music filling the hall and drifting into the courtyard and the darkness beyond.

* * *

><p>Revel fidgeted with his cufflink for the fourth time since arriving at the mouth of the hallway leading to the ballroom, knowing he was extraordinarily late. The ball had begun almost two and a half hours ago, and though fashionable tardiness was the norm amongst the noble class, Captain Revel usually prided himself on his punctuality…until this evening. He could make up the excuse that guard duties had prevented him from leaving early, that important papers needed signing, that there'd been a mix up in the rotation schedule that needed reconciling before two of his men came to blows, but all of that had only taken an hour to accomplish. The rest of his time Revel had spent pacing the length of his private chambers, nervous as a man on his wedding day, the ever constant rattle of his battle armor butterflies knocking around in his stomach.<p>

As he approached the ballroom, Revel could hear the distant chatter of voices and the tinkling of glasses mingling with the gentle lilt of an orchestra coming from the warmly lit room. Nervously he unbuttoned and re-buttoned his cuffs, trying his best to get them as lined up as possible. Only slightly satisfied with his final adjustment, he moved to straightening his collar and tugging the nonexistent wrinkles from his dark gray jacket, unsure why he was fretting like a young lordling at his first dance.

_Because, idiot, you were a fool and asked the queen for a dance,_ he begrudgingly admitted to himself, absentmindedly running a hand through his freshly oiled hair. Like the last ball he'd attended, Revel decided to wear his hair down rather than slicked back, as was his habit when in his Captain's uniform. Dark curly locks fell to just below his chin, framing his strong jaw and neck in a curtain of chocolate brown. He'd allowed the coarse stubble along his chin and jaw to grow in fractionally along with a slight dusting of brown hair creeping across his upper lip. His neck he'd shaved clean that evening, taking painstaking measures to make sure the straight razor did its job without leaving behind unwanted redness. Usually the Captain didn't put such effort or thought into his looks, but tonight was different. Tonight he'd be dancing with the queen, if she was still willing, and the thought of her rejection or acceptance was utterly terrifying. Again he swallowed the lump in his throat, fingers working under his stiff collar as he tried to breathe.

"Well, don't you look the sight of a fine pampered noble."

Revel jumped slightly and turned to find Sigmund standing in a shallow nook opposite him, ceremonial spear in hand and a gleaming rapier strapped to his left hip. The big guard took up most of the alcove, his broad shoulders nearly scraping the walls on either side of him.

"As shocking as it seems, I do have the ability to clean up rather nicely," the Captain said with an easy smile that didn't reach his eyes. He approached the big guard and they clasped forearms. "I didn't know you were on duty this evening."

"I took Sebastian's shift so he could be at home with his wife."

"I'll be sure to compensate you for your troubles," Revel said making a mental note to double Sigmund's pay for the evening and giving him an extra day off.

"What you gave us is compensation enough," Sigmund said with a broad smile that showed off the gap between his teeth. Revel looked at him curiously, not understanding what he was taking about, but, before he could ask, the big guard continued speaking.

"You look like a man about to ask a woman he fancies to dance."

"I look like a man preparing to weave his way through the precarious forest of nobles like I should know what the hell I'm doing," Revel retorted looking down the hallway and through the open double doors at the couples he could see spinning on the dance floor.

"Never was good at that game, but, then again, when you come from the common class fancy things like balls aren't really within your reach," Sigmund sniffed and leaned against his spear.

_Ah,_ Revel thought with a sigh, _I thought I sensed a bit of jealousy here._

It was no great secret that a man raised to the level of guard Captain was allowed to indulge in the finer aspects of court life. Though still counted as a commoner, Revel could attend the balls and parties thrown by the noble class so long as he was invited. It was a perk the Captain didn't often indulge in, preferring to live as humbly and unobtrusive as possible, but recently that had been difficult when the party invitations had come directly from the Queen and Princess.

"I don't honestly think anyone is," Revel sighed.

"Well regardless, if your eyes are set on a particular woman, you may want to remind yourself that you're a eunuch," the big guard said with a sly grin.

Revel scowled. He'd heard that tired old joke for years, and it was no easier to swallow now than it was back when his men started making cracks about his lack of sexual diversity. He knew it was all in good fun, men had always and would always compare stories of their sexual escapades like comparing badges of honor, but the Captain couldn't help but feel oddly alienated because of his choice to distance himself from common romance.

"Just because I'm not into chronic courting and the occasional whoring like the rest of my bachelor guards doesn't mean I don't have the capability of pleasing a woman."

"Hey, I didn't come up with the nickname," Sigmund chuckled, still leaning on his spear.

Deciding to end the conversation, Revel nodded and bid Sigmund a good evening before making his way down the long hallway, each step pulling at his legs as if he wore iron shackles around each ankle. Just before he entered the ballroom, a portly, redheaded man dressed in an impeccable navy blue suit with a purple sash stepped around the corner.

"Good evening, Kai," Revel greeted cheerily, hoping to God the manservant couldn't see the line of sweat starting to form along his hairline.

"Good evening, Captain Revel," Kai replied with a shallow bow. "I trust you have your invitation?"

"Of course," Revel said producing his invitation with a flourish that would have made a court magician proud. Kai took the piece of ornate paper, scanned it briefly, then stepped aside to let him enter.

"Merry Christmas, Captain. Please, enjoy the ball."

Revel nodded appreciatively before stepping over the threshold with as much trepidation as a man preparing to jump off a cliff, and waded into the sea of at least three hundred people, searching for an island he didn't know even existed. He'd just waded through the first press of bodies, high noble lords entertaining groups of giggling high noble ladies, when a hand alighted gently on his shoulder. Heart in his throat, Revel turned to find a familiar yet unwanted face looking back at him, Duke Wellmore's daughter grinning toothily.

"Why, Captain Revel, I hadn't thought to see you tonight."

Revel immediately took the Lady's hand and ducked into an impeccable bow. "Good evening, Lady Genora, and merry Christmas. It's a pleasure to see you this evening."

Lady Genora giggled and pressed white gloved fingers against her small red lips, attempting to hide her mirth. "Merry Christmas to you too as well. Are you here for work or pleasure, Captain?"

"Thankfully, this evening, I am here for pleasure," Revel said trying to hide his irritation. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy speaking with the few noble acquaintances he'd made over the years, but Lady Genora had taken quite a liking to the Captain and sought him out at every event he attended, which were few and far between. She always wanted to dance and attempted on more than one occasion to regale him with stories of her father's seemingly endless wealth and political pull. Forever the gentleman, even though it galled him at times, Revel would accept her invitation to dance and listen to her boastings, determined not to insult the Lady but wishing all the while for a chance to escape.

"Then, if it's pleasure you are seeking, may I ask for your hand in this dance?" Lady Genora inquired with a wide smile.

Cursing inwardly, Revel schooled his face into a polite and pleasant mask as he nodded and took the Lady's hand, leading her into the middle of the dance floor. The orchestra struck up a lively tune, a three step most nobles knew by heart, and the Captain took the lead, one hand on Lady Genora's waist and the other lightly clasping her extended right hand. Just before he was about to swing the Duke's daughter into the first stages of the dance, Revel looked over his left shoulder and felt his heart skip a beat.

Elsa stood near a raised dais where her throne resided, speaking to her sister and a few unrecognizable noblemen. To say the queen was a breathtaking sight would have been a gross understatement. She wore a pale blue dress of thin glittering material that hugged every curve of her body with almost teasing snugness. A subtle slit up the right leg, stopping just above her knee, allowed the fabric to flow easily around her legs as she moved, and Revel realized with a thrill of excitement that Elsa had chosen this dress for the sole purpose of dance. Ornate crystal straps, most likely made from ice, held the dress firmly in place across her shoulders as the fabric dipped into a low neckline which showed off the queen's pale chest and ample bust. As if not to be outdone by her dress, her thick platinum hair had been brushed back but left unbraided, pinned in place with numerous glittering snowflake charms that caught the candle light and flashed like bottled fire.

As if Elsa possessed some supernatural ability to tell when someone was watching her, she turned and locked eyes with the Captain from half way across the room, and he felt his body explode into a thousand pins and needles. She still wore a smile from the conversation she was having with the noblemen around her, but her eyes were as sharp as blue tourmaline stones. Turning back to the dance at hand, Revel swallowed the quickly growing lump in his throat and swept Lady Genora into the dance, fully aware that the queen was following his movements like a hawk watching a mouse.


	10. Chapter 10

As was customary, Elsa and Anna arrived at the Yule Ball promptly at six with Kristoff and Olaf in tow. Together the royal party had ascended the dais, the queen saying a few words of greeting before declaring the ball officially begun, and accepted generous applause from the throngs of noble guests spread throughout the ballroom. Immediately the orchestra struck up a lively tune and the dancing and revelry began in earnest, servants mingling through the crowd with silver trays of sparkling gold champagne in molded ice flutes, courtesy of the queen, and small finger foods. No more than ten minutes into the party, Elsa had been approached by at least five noblemen asking for her hand in a dance. Partially obligated to oblige them, the queen elegantly swept into the center of the ballroom and danced with each man in turn, all the while keeping close watch on the door.

She didn't understand why she felt Revel's absence like a candelabra missing half its candles, but each moment that passed without the Captain dragged on for an eternity. After the first hour she'd given up watching the door for him, and after the second she'd given up the hope of seeing him at the ball tonight, a prospect that both saddened and irritated her. He'd seemed so enthusiastic about attending a week ago, their sessions taking a hiatus until after the holidays ended for both their sakes, and she wondered what had changed. Disheartened, Elsa turned her attention away from her crestfallen feelings and onto the people who were actually in attendance. There were quite a few noblemen she intended on speaking to about different political matters and was grateful for the diversion. She hadn't even noticed the time slipping by as she continued to dance and carry on conversations until Anna waddled up to her, her stomach showing through her loose fitting burgundy dress with embellished silver embroidery and a soft leather bodice, and grabbed ahold of her arm.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up," the princess panted with a smile. She'd just finished her third dance with Kristoff and had excused herself in order to catch her breath. Her husband had departed to retrieve refreshments for his wife, threading his way through the throngs while trying his hardest not to engage in conversation with anyone. Despite being elevated to the title of Barron, Kristoff had no grasp of anything pertaining to politics or the political game and hated when nosy noblemen and women pounced on him expecting the ice harvester to gossip about internal affairs he knew nothing about.

"Well, we've got at least another two hours before the party ends; do you want to head to bed already?" Elsa asked with a sideways smile. She knew full well that parties and balls were Anna's bread and butter, the princess being a natural social butterfly who thrived off a crowd.

"Hardly," Anna scoffed wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and grinning. "I just need to take a breather. It's hard dancing when you have half a person growing in your stomach."

"If you need to, please sit. I don't want you overexerting yourself tonight," Elsa said motioning towards the throne behind her.

"I'll be fine," the princess insisted, bumping shoulders with her older sister and managing to pull the first genuine smile from Elsa that night. "Are you alright? You seem…distracted."

"Hmm? Oh, just letting my mind wonder," the queen said offhandedly.

"You're looking for someone," Anna pressed, watching her sister's cerulean blue eyes dart quickly around the room, scanning faces at lightning speed.

"What makes you say that?" Elsa asked, pulling her gaze away from the thirty or forty pairs of dancers gathered at the center of the ballroom.

"Because I know you too well."

"Perhaps I'm just enjoying—"

"Ah, Queen Elsa, it's a pleasure to see you this fine evening! Merry Christmas to you and your family!"

Elsa turned towards the familiar voice and smiled warmly at Duke Ferdinand and his two sons. The three men stopped in front the dais and, with a nod from the guards stationed discretely on either side of the raised wooden structure, approached the royal sisters, all smiles and warm embraces.

"Merry Christmas to you and your kin, Ferdinand; I had hoped to see you here this evening," Elsa said bowing ever so slightly towards the willowy man. The Duke folded himself into a perfect bow and took the queen's hand gently in his, kissing the top of it lightly. Elsa had to keep herself from rolling her eyes, a smile pulling at her lips.

"You know these courtly trappings of proper etiquette aren't necessary when I think of you as extended family."

"I do it to keep up appearances," Duke Ferdinand whispered out of the corner of his mouth, "and to teach my uncultured twin sons how to properly act in front of a queen."

Elsa giggled, bowing to a flushing William and Isaac, both of which had been within earshot of their fathers quip. "Merry Christmas to you two as well. I hope you are enjoying the party?"

"Yes, Majesty," both boys answered and bowed in perfect unison as had been their custom since they were little.

The Duke had been close friends with the late king and queen, oftentimes visiting over the summer before the castle was put into perpetual lockdown because of Elsa's uncontrollable powers. After the Great Freeze, however, the queen had reached out to her now closest trade partner, Weselton having been removed from the books and barred from any form of trade with Arendelle, for support. Duke Ferdinand had gladly stepped into the role of head trade partner, but his presence this evening had nothing to do with business or trade. Having practically grown up around the Duke, Elsa had wanted a familiar face at the party tonight.

"You look exceptionally lovely this evening, Majesty," Ferdinand said with a broad smile. "If I'm not being too bold, I do believe you've inherited your mother's beauty and your father's strong sense of business."

Elsa smiled and couldn't resist rolling her eyes, "You are a hopeless flatterer, sir."

"I find it keeps my wife on her toes when I flatter beautiful women!" he said with a wink. "And Princess Anna, look at you!" the Duke turned and bowed, kissing the top of her hand as well. "A vision of beauty wreathed in strawberry fire. You grow lovelier every time I see you."

"Thank you Ferdinand, though I dare say that my loveliness has diminished slightly over the past few months as this little one grows," Anna said grinning and placing a hand on her stomach.

"Nonsense! A woman only grows in beauty the more with child she becomes. Why, I remember when my Rebecca was carrying these two," the Duke said planting a hand on either of his sons' shoulders. "She practically glowed with maternal warmth that seemed to die the minute the boys rolled out of her. Haha!"

The royal sisters both fought back a string of giggles as they watched William and Isaac flush a deep scarlet. Parental embarrassment was a horrible thing to endure, but it was even worse when it was in the presence of a queen who was still eligible for courting.

"Duke Ferdinand, is that you?"

The Duke turned and gave a mighty laugh as Kristoff stepped next to the dais, a crystal glass of water in his right hand and a small plate of food in his left.

"Barron Kristoff, what a pleasure!"

"Likewise," the mountain man said handing his wife her glass of water which the princess took eagerly and drained in two gulps. "I didn't know you were coming tonight."

"Wouldn't miss the Arendelle Yule Ball even for the second coming of Christ, haha!"

"It's nice to see the two of you as well," Kristoff said nodding to the twins.

As the mountain man broke into conversation with William and Isaac, Elsa took the opportunity to scan the crowd one more time in a vain attempt to see if Revel had shown or not. Not seeing him amongst the nobles clustered around the door or on the dance floor, she turned her attention back on the conversation at hand. A few minutes later, Elsa felt something akin to a prickling on the back of her neck and turned to look out across the ballroom, heart flying into her throat as her eyes locked with Revel's. Her first instinct was to go and greet the Captain, and she'd almost taken her first step when she noticed he was in the company of Lady Genora, Duke Wellmore's youngest daughter. Immediately her happiness at seeing him was overshadowed by completely new, completely unforeseen emotions.

_So, this is the game you want to play, Captain,_ Elsa thought to herself as she watched him break eye contact and step into the first legs of his dance. _Well, two can certainly play at this game. Challenge accepted._

"William," Elsa said after the conversation had reached a stopping point, "would you care to dance?"

Before the flabbergasted young noble could react, his father pushed him forward with a grin so wide it was a wonder it stayed within the boundaries of his face.

"Of course he would!"

"Wonderful!" Elsa said before William could open his mouth to either protest or accept her offer, taking the young noble by the arm and leading him onto the dance floor. "I trust you know this dance?"

"Y-yes Majesty," William managed to stutter.

"Perfect. By your lead then."

William immediately took the queen by the waist and extended right hand and stepped into the three step waltz. It was a simple enough dance, the gentleman leading the lady in a series of three step movements done in three increments, their bodies poised in a loose yet refined posture. There were a few tight twirls to break the monotony of sidestepping in a triangular pattern and even a moment where the gentleman released the lady so that they could, for whatever reason, bow to one another before coming back together and continuing the waltz.

To her great surprise, William was actually a fine dancer with sure and graceful steps uncommon in most noblemen his age. Knowing that he was just freshly seventeen, Elsa had expected William to fumble and bumble about, tripping over his feet or nervously counting in time with the music to make sure he was on rhythm, but he did none of these things, instead he was flowing and becoming one with the music as much as the queen was. It was such a shock, Elsa momentarily forgot her true reason for dragging William onto the dance floor until a familiar face passed by, and she caught Revel watching her with a look that could only be described as utterly apologetic.

_Is he sorry for being nearly three hours late, or sorry I'm dancing with William?_ Elsa wondered as the two parties passed each other like ships in the night. She quickly schooled her face into one of cool indifference and cocked an eyebrow at Revel over William's shoulder. She saw the Captain glance down at the woman in front of him before he looked back up with helpless shrug.

_Ah, dragged into a dance were you? Well, serves you right._

"You dance wonderfully, William," Elsa said catching the young noble off guard.

"T-thank you, Majesty. You're a good dancer as well. I mean…you're not just good, your great, wonderful…spectacular…"

Elsa laughed and smiled warmly at the young lordling. "You needn't be so nervous when speaking with a woman, William. Just act as naturally as you dance."

"Try telling that to my father," William mumbled, twirling Elsa once in time with the music. "He insists my brother and I aren't courting properly or trying hard enough. Every event we attend, he's always pushing noble Ladies on us or bartering with their parents like he's buying livestock." As if realizing what he'd just said and what it could imply about his forced dance with the Queen, William gave Elsa a panicked look. "Please don't misunderstand me though! I'm not saying it's not been a pleasure to dance with you. Quite the opposite…I just wish he'd let Isaac and me go at our own pace."

"I can sympathize with both parties," Elsa said as the song slowly came to a standstill and she and William sketched a shallow bow towards one another along with all the other dancers scattered across the dance floor. "Your father only wants the best for you, but I disagree at pressing anyone into falling in love. The choice should ultimately be yours and the young lady you decide to court. No parent should sell his children into marriage."

"Thank you, Majesty," William said with a bright smile. "It is nice to know someone at least partially agrees with me."

"Like I said, I can see through the eyes of both parties." Elsa smiled and took Williams offered arm as they exited the dance floor. Just before she re-entered her personal clique, the queen glanced over her shoulder and wasn't surprised to find Revel watching her leave. She offered him a sly smile, knowing full well she was being openly coy with her instructor, and turned her attention back to her group, content on making the Captain work for his dance this evening.

It would take another hour of near constant dancing with Lady Genora before Revel was able to disentangle himself from the clingy noble, and even that was like pulling free of brambles imbedded in skin.

"Do forgive me, Lady Genora, but there is a pressing matter I must attend to," the Captain said sketching a deep, apologetic bow.

"But I thought you said this ball was purely pleasure for you," Lady Genora said, a small bit of whine in her voice and wine on her breath.

"Oh, do believe me it is, but there is a man I was hoping to see this evening. He and I need to discuss the reasoning behind a few missing supplies of mine. If you will excuse me…"

"Of course, Captain. And when you've finished, I'd be happy to continue our conversation," Lady Genora said extending her hand. Revel took it and kissed it lightly before turning sharply and walking away as quickly as he could. Reaching the ring of onlookers at the edge of the dance floor, the Captain exhaled like a man who had been holding his breath for hours and ran a hand through his hair. God help him, if he had to dance with Genora one more time tonight he just might actually go through with his previous contemplations about throwing himself off the balcony.

Slowly, Revel threaded his way across the ballroom until the press of bodies thinned and he entered a surprisingly open pocket just in front of the raised dais. Elsa was nowhere to be seen, but Anna and Kristoff were there speaking to a nobleman Revel finally recognized as Duke Ferdinand. Taking a breath, the Captain ventured forward, nodding at the two guards standing near the royal party who nodded back respectfully.

"Good evening Princess Anna, Barron Kristoff, and merry Christmas."

"Captain Revel!" Anna said with an infectiously bright smile and waddled towards him. Before he could protest, the princess had thrown her arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. "I didn't know you were attending this evening. What's the occasion?"

"Her Majesty invited me," Revel said and made sure to keep his comment as neutral as possible lest Anna grow suspicious as to why he'd received a personal invite from the queen. The princess didn't seem concerned or suspicious and pulled Revel forward until he was standing next to one of the Duke's twin sons.

"Duke Ferdinand, may I introduce you to Arendelle's finest guard Captain; Revel Handler."

The Duke, champagne flute in hand, laughed and extended a hand which Revel took and shook firmly. "Captain of the guard, eh? Well, it's good to meet the man responsible for keeping Arendelle's royal family safe!"

"A duty I will continue until the end of my days, or until I'm forced to retire," the Captain said with a smile.

"Forced retirement? Good man! It warms my heart to see that those younger in years than myself still have some semblance of responsibility left in them. I look forward to the day I can finally retire. A young man, I no longer am."

"Oh come now, Ferdinand," Anna chuckled, "older than dirt still qualifies you as young in the earth's eyes. Just remember that."

The Duke barked with laughter, and Revel decided in that moment that he liked this old nobleman. Any noble able to take a joke about their age was someone who didn't think themselves above their fellow man, a quality the Captain could certainly respect. The Duke was about to say more when Elsa swept back into the clique with a sweating and panting Kristoff in tow. She took one look at Revel, her face an unreadable mask, and nodded curtly at him.

_Seven levels of hell, she's mad at me,_ Revel thought and sighed inwardly.

"Good evening, Captain. So _nice_ of you to join us. Did you just get in?"

Revel couldn't help but read between the lines of the queen's question and winced. Apparently she'd noticed his tardiness and had taken offence.

"No, Majesty. I've been in attendance for about an hour now." The Captain knew there was no point in further explanations because they would come across as an attempt at an excuse which could very likely make the situation worse. He had a sinking feeling he was on thin ice with the queen as is, and didn't want to further anger her.

"Well, regardless," Elsa said with a slight nod as she accepted an ice flute of champagne from a passing servant, "it is _ever_ _so__ nice_ to see you this evening." After taking a few sips of the golden bubbly liquid, she turned away from the conversation Anna and Isaac were having and turned her full attention onto Revel, her face still set in an impassive mask.

"I saw you dancing with Duke Wellmore's daughter earlier. How is she?" she asked conversationally, though Revel was able to see through her innocently curious façade.

"Lady Genora is…well, Majesty."

"That's good to hear. I know the poor dear doesn't have very many suitors or courtly friends to speak with, so it's nice to see she's taken a liking to my guard Captain."

Revel couldn't help but notice that Elsa stressed the word 'my' a little too heavily, and it was his turn to raise an eyebrow, a small smile playing on his lips. He moved in closer so that his voice wouldn't carry and dropped his courtly etiquette.

"Jealousy isn't an emotion becoming of a queen, Majesty. Though I can't, for the life of me, understand why you're feeling it towards a woman so many stations beneath you. What do you have to fear from Lady Genora?"

Elsa shot the Captain a cutting look and felt a bit of flush unwillingly rise into her cheeks. Damn if he wasn't a perceptive bastard sometimes. She was quiet for a few moments, lips pursed in thought, before letting out a short sigh, her regal coolness slipping a bit.

"You're three hours late," she said lamely, unable to bring herself to openly admit that she had indeed been jealous of the dance Revel and Lady Genora had shared.

"And I would have apologized had you let me," Revel said flatly.

"I had thought…" Elsa trailed off and looked out at the dancing nobles, a small bit of embarrassment worming into her stomach. She knew she shouldn't have gotten angry with Revel, he did have other duties aside from attending a silly ball, but she'd felt his absence like a missing limb and had felt slapped in the face when she saw him dancing with another woman.

_Another woman?_ Elsa thought with a shock of unwanted surprise. _Revel isn't mine by any right. What is wrong with me? He can damn well dance with whomever he wants._

"You thought I'd forgotten your invitation to dance," Revel said with a smile.

"Yes," Elsa mumbled. With a sigh that pulled her rigid posture into a slight slouch, the queen folded her hands in front of her and looked up at Revel with a mixture of regret and embarrassment wreathed in her eyes. How much the fool did she look getting so easily jealous? She should know better!

"Forgive my earlier mood, Captain. I shouldn't have gotten angry."

"There's nothing to forgive," Revel said softly. "Though, if you want to make it up to me, you could accept my hand in the next dance. That is, so long as you're not torturing Kristoff any longer."

Elsa fought back a laugh and cast a glace over her shoulder at the mountain man. Kristoff's dancing had certainly improved over the past few months, but he was nowere near the caliber of the queen or his wife. The big man was leaning gingerly against Anna in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure and pain in his aching feet.

"I believe I challenged you to keep up with me," Elsa said, motioning for a nearby servant to come and take her champagne glass before turning towards the dance floor.

"Ah yes, I remember. Well then, Majesty," Revel said extending his hand for her, unable to hide his wide smile, "shall I lead, or will you take the honor?"

"Oh by all means, Captain," Elsa said with a grin matching his, "take the lead, but don't be surprised when you find yourself following my steps by the end of the song."

"Challenge accepted," Revel replied as the two swept into the center of the dance floor. Before they could begin, however, Elsa excused herself momentarily and approached the orchestra. The maestro bowed deeply, and after a few quick words with the queen, nodded once and turned back to his work, muttering a few words to his instrumentalists.

"What was that about?" Revel asked quietly as the queen took her place in front of him and placed her hand atop his strong shoulder. The Captain had to fight back the urge to shiver at her touch, his heart starting to pound like a drum in his chest.

"A change of pace," Elsa smiled sweetly. "I trust you're familiar with the Five Step Waltz?"

Revel flashed a toothy grin. "One of my favorite dances, but not a common one. Few people know how to play the game."

"Well then, we shall see how good a player you are."

"It will be like dancing in my sleep."

"Show rather than tell, Captain."

The music began with a boisterous note from the orchestra, string instruments mixing with a few woodwinds and brass. It seemed the crowd around the queen and Revel knew the song, but Elsa paid them no mind, her eyes locked on the Captain's as he pushed off and began guiding her around the dance floor.

They began as most partners did, on equal ground with one another, steps in tune with the music. Revel tipped that precarious balance and took the lead, stepping ever so slightly to the left only to move forward a step, effectively pushing the queen back. This went on for a few moments, Revel guiding Elsa backwards and to the side as they twirled in time with the music. The key to this particular dance was to have the follower, the dancer being led by the lead partner, strike the ground five times in quick succession as the dance moved in a circular pattern across the dance floor. It was effectively a counting game put to music, and what made it so enjoyably frustrating was that it was up to the leader to decide what move to make. Unlike most waltzes, the Five Step had no routine, no choreography to follow aside from the five steps each participant had to complete. The addition of twirls, dips, and the unjoining and the rejoining of hands was a clever way to try and throw your partner off count, and when someone misstepped they relinquished their role as leader for the next turn.

Unsurprisingly, Revel was unable to get Elsa to misstep on the first go around, her feet moving seamlessly in time with the music. His second try yielded the same result, and the queen seemed to be gaining both confidence and speed as she continued to follow his lead, right hand held delicately in his while her left draped over his shoulder.

"Is this your idea of a challenge?" Elsa said with a catty grin.

"I had thought I would take it slow for your benefit. You _have_ been dancing all evening whereas I've only been at it for an hour."

"Oh, so you think my endurance is lacking?" the queen said, the air around her thick with sarcasm. "Well then, I guess I should demonstrate just how strong my endurance has become since beginning classes with you."

Revel felt the shift in power like he was riding a horse bareback and the animal suddenly surged to life under him. Before he could blink twice, the roles had been reversed and he was now the follower to Elsa's leader, backing away as the queen advanced. Mind spinning to catch up with his shocked body, he missed his first step and nearly swore aloud. Elsa grinned and continued to press her advantage, but the Captain quickly recovered and fell into step with her rhythm.

"You definitely have the poise and grace for this game, Majesty," Revel said, a little bit of color rising into his cheeks with exertion as he fought to count, keep an ear on the music, and banter with the Queen at the same time.

"I would certainly hope so," Elsa smiled sweetly and disconnected herself from Revel, opening a small gap about three feet wide between them. Like a cat on the prowl, the queen attempted to circle the Captain, but Revel was wise to her movement and circled with her, making sure his shoulder was parallel to hers. When they rejoined it was his right shoulder against her left, their arms intertwined, palms together, fingers laced.

The two stared at one another like duelers locked in mortal combat, and the spark that suddenly leapt between them would have been enough to illuminate the whole room had it suddenly been plunged into darkness. The hairs on the back of Revel's neck stood on end and his scalp tingled at the same moment goosebumps exploded across Elsa's entire body, ringing a shiver from her as they went. She felt the telltale coolness of her magic pooling in the palm pressed against Revel's, but if the Captain felt it too he didn't seem to mind. Suddenly the room and their fellow dancers fell away until it was only the Captain and the Queen at its center.

Heart beating so forcefully he feared it would plow through his rib cage, Revel stepped back, extending their currently intertwined arms. With a forceful snap, he pulled Elsa towards him and sent her into a twirl. Once, twice, three times she rotated before he caught her, both dancers returning to their previous center, right hands extended, hand on shoulder and waist. Revel felt a breath of arctic air wash across his face, wafer thin ice cracking underfoot before disappearing, and couldn't help but smile. It was the queen's turn to be surprised, and she misstepped almost immediately, her equilibrium momentarily off balance.

"That was…unexpected," Elsa said a little breathlessly, a rosy color rising into her cheeks. She hardly heard the music anymore, moving purely on instinct.

"The ice or the spin?" Revel grinned devilishly.

"Both."

"Well, you should learn to expect the unexpected from me, Majesty."

"As you should from me as well."

Elsa didn't give the Captain time to prepare a response. She was in the lead almost immediately, forcing Revel to follow her steps or risk a misstep. The speed and precision of her movements, the way her body flowed into each new position, instantly captivated the Captain. She was electricity made flesh in his hands, her crackling energy flowing through his veins and quickening his step at the same moment it quickened his heartbeat. Around they went in a blur of motion, elbows and feet moving at an almost supernatural speed, heedless of the dancers around them, or the ball, or the world. Elsa matched Revel stroke for stroke, giving ground only to take it back from him.

As they danced they grew closer, bodies gravitating towards one another like the pull of a sun on a planet. Again Revel twirled the queen, her dress spinning and snapping around her, heeled shoes scraping softly against the marble floor. The sudden halt of her spin as she reconnected her grip on the Captain pulled her loose hair over one shoulder, thick platinum locks cascading down the front of one half of her dress, leaving the opposite half shockingly bare.

Again they separated, only to come back together like waves crashing against a coastal wall, noses very nearly touching, bodies only inches apart. This close and the Captain could see every facet of the queen's cerulean blue eyes, how the color shifted around her iris in varying degrees of blue and light blue. This close and he could nearly count all the freckles dusted across the bridge of her nose. Breathing deep, Revel could smell the rich scent of high mountain frost rolling off the queen, her breath enticingly cool on his sweat prickled neck.

Elsa allowed the Captain to move her backwards, feet striking her needed five steps in quick succession, but she hardly felt herself move, hardly felt herself breathe. She'd never had a dance partner like this before, someone actually able to keep up with her, to challenge her every step and push her beyond her limits. It was both thrilling and terrifying. Revel was power and grace, gentility and passion rolled into a seemingly ordinary, unobtrusive package. He was the epitome of an enigma, and the mystery swirling around him like an aura only deepened the queen's need to know him on a deeper level.

As the song came to its crescendo, the music building like a storm about to break, the Captain spun the queen in another rotation of three, but, the moment he caught her, immediately rolled into a dip so low Elsa's head very nearly touched the ground. It only took half a heartbeat, but the look of shocked surprise and the feeling of her left hand clench the fabric of his jacket while the right tighten around his hand was well worth it. Revel snapped the two of them back to a standing position like a bamboo rod springing upright, faces barely inches apart, rapid breaths intermingling in a warm haze around their heads. The previously felt spark chose that moment to return with a vengeance, the nervous electric energy arcing between the two as they stared at one another, hearts pounding like twin war drums in their chests.

Neither realized the music had stopped until a burst of applause shattered the rapt silence like a brick through a window, shocking them both back into reality. Startled, Elsa and Revel took a step back and looked around as if realizing for the first time they were in the middle of a hall surrounded by applauding onlookers. Unsure of exactly what to do, the Queen and the Captain bowed to one another, faces radiating heat while their smiles grew by the second. Taking the Captain's offered arm, Elsa allowed herself to be led back to the dais where a completely awestruck Anna and Kristoff waited, mouths hanging open.

"Where…where'd you learn to dance like _that_?!" Anna stammered as her sister came to stand next to her, the queen smoothing out the fabric of her dress and tucking a few wayward strands of hair back behind her ears. The princess knew Elsa could dance, but she'd _never_ seen her older sister pull moves like she'd done moments ago. Just the complexity alone made Anna's head spin. And the way she'd moved so seamlessly with the Captain…

Anna blinked, realizing something for the first time. It wasn't that she'd never seen her sister dance like that before, Elsa was as talented at dance as she was with her ice magic; the princess had never seen her dance so fiercely or freely. There had been no restraint between Elsa and the Captain, no nervous fumblings, not that Elsa was prone to any, no formal rigidity. Their movements had been so fluid, so tightly synchronized it was almost like they'd planned the entire thing, but somehow Anna knew better. So a niggling curiosity began to form in the back of the princess's mind as she watched her sister readjust herself and slip back into the role of the ever poised, ever proper queen. She couldn't put her finger on what was going on, but she knew she was missing something happening just under her nose.

"From the same instructor who taught you," the queen said with a smile and graciously accepted a glass of water offered by a still stunned Kristoff. She hadn't noticed until now that her hands were shaking quite badly and the excuse to hold something tightly against her chest would help hide it.

"Wait…Are you sure?"

"Undoubtedly. I remember you were more interested in horseback riding than you were dance, at the time," Elsa said and took a sip of water. She noticed Anna was giving her the look she often wore when trying to puzzle something out and frowned.

"Something wrong?" the queen asked over the rim of her glass.

"No…just trying to put my finger on something I'm missing," Anna said continuing to stare at her sister.

Growing uncomfortable under her sister's scrutiny, Elsa turned her attention away from Anna and nodded at Revel, "Captain, I don't believe I've had so much fun dancing in a long time. Thank you for indulging me. You are a marvelous dancer."

Revel sketched a tight bow, unable to understand why he felt he could run the full length of the parapet wall at full tilt and make it back with energy to spare. He was practically vibrating and grabbed the first champagne glass that passed by, desperate for something to take the edge off.

"The pleasure was mine, Majesty. It's been years since I've been able to dust off those old steps and actually put them to use," Revel said taking a long pull from the champagne glass. The alcohol helped marginally, and by his third glass he was beginning to mellow a bit, his hammering pulse slowing to a rhythmic beat. Revel remained with the royal party for another half hour, chatting with Anna and joking with Kristoff, before feeling the effects of his long day and lack of adrenalin begin to take effect. Gently he touched the queen's arm to get her attention and sketched another perfect bow.

"Majesty, I believe I will turn in for the evening. Thank you for the opportunity to attend your ball and for the lovely dance you and I shared."

"Likewise, Captain," Elsa said stepping away so that the two of them could speak more privately. "So, off to discover what gifts were left for you this merry Christmas Eve?"

"Gifts? I thought only good little boys and girls received gifts," Revel replied with a broad smile.

"A lump of coal for you then, though I'm not at all surprised," Elsa sniffed with mock disinterest. Then another thought touched her mind and she stifled a giggle. "Or a beating in a burlap sack with a willow switch, if you follow Kristoff's beliefs."

"I…certainly would take the lump of coal over a willow switch beating," Revel said making a slightly confused, slightly alarmed face. He was rewarded with a peal of laughter from the queen that stretched the grin on his face to the breaking point.

"Good night, Majesty, and I hope you will not find a lump of coal waiting for you," the Captain said bowing for the last time, and gently kissing the top of Elsa's hand. He never let his eyes leave hers even as he bowed and watched a hue of red form just over the bridge of her nose.

"Good night, Captain, and merry Christmas. I look forward to hearing about your lumps of coal."

"I'll be sure to tell you about them in great detail."

"Marvelous."

And with that, Revel took his leave, feeling like a man walking amongst the clouds.

* * *

><p>Stepping into his personal chambers was like stepping into a little piece of heaven, and Revel sighed with happy relief as he slipped out of his jacket and hung it haphazardly on a wooden coatrack just behind the heavy door. Bolting the door shut behind him, more out of habit than security, the Captain glanced around his dark quarters, eyes quickly adjusting to the low light. Moving towards the feeble glow of hearth coals, he tossed a few logs onto the low red embers. December nights on the fjord could be brutally cold, so it was best to stoke the fire now rather than in the middle of the night. Immediately, the logs caught fire and his room was bathed in warm, flickering orange light that cast moving shadows across his walls.<p>

Releasing another contented sigh, Revel leaned against the table in front of the hearth and kicked off his shoes and at the same time unbuttoned his undershirt. The heat from the fire began warming his cold hands, further relaxing him. Energy for the most part spent, and head still in the clouds, the Captain turned away from the fire, not bothering to undress any further, and flopped onto his bed with a grateful moan that died half way out his mouth. His bed….it didn't feel…right. Sitting up, Revel noticed with puzzling shock that he didn't feel the customary lumps and bumps under his palm. Quite the opposite, the mattress under him was uncharacteristically plush with just a hint of firmness.

"I didn't have that much to drink…" Revel said pushing himself off the bed and starring at the mattress as if anticipating it to suddenly sprout wings or do a flip. Gingerly he reached down and pressed on the surface again just to be sure he'd actually felt what he'd felt. Sure enough, it was the same luxurious softness.

"This…isn't my bed. What the hell…?" He was about back away when he noticed a lit oil lamp sitting on the nightstand next to his imposter bed, a manila envelope leaning against the glass hood. Carefully, the Captain pulled the letter free and felt his eyebrows shoot into his hairline as he began reading. Suddenly, Sigmund's earlier comment made sense.

_Captain Revel Handler:_

_I would first like to extend my unending gratitude towards you and your men for the years of protection and safety you've brought to my kingdom. Yours is a career of selfless sacrifice and unyielding courage and loyalty that I do not believe my subjects truly appreciate, but your service has not gone unnoticed. _

_Enclosed in this letter is a receipt for: two hundred and thirty six new cot mattresses, two hundred and thirty six cotton blankets and wool blankets (four hundred and seventy two blankets in total), two hundred and thirty six duck feather pillows, one master goose-down mattress with matching pillows, complete re-restocking of guard food rations, and one hundred and twenty new uniforms. Please sign the receipt and give it to Kai to be placed in the books. Also know that none of the items listed above was purchased using money from your Guard Credit._

_Please accept these things as a token of my appreciation for Arendelle's royal guard. Merry Christmas, Captain._

_Her Majesty, Queen Elsa._

There was a secondary letter enfolded in the first, and Revel unfolded with shaking hands and read it aloud.

"Captain, as a thank you for all that you've taught me over the course of our sessions together, I took the liberty of replacing your old mattress with a more updated version. I hope you won't mind. Also, be sure to take a close look at your table as I believe there is something waiting for you there as well. Merry Christmas, Revel, and I look forward to the return of our sessions together after the first of the New Year. Until then, take care."

Dumbfounded, and just a little giddy, Revel glanced over the top of the letter at his table and saw a tall, dark bottle sitting there amongst a scattering of unimportant papers that he hadn't noticed until now. Slowly, he walked over and stared at the bottle, the glass winking greenish black in the firelight, and felt his mouth fall open in shock. He knew what it was before reading the label and felt an explosion of warmth spread throughout his body as if enveloped in a massive hug. On his table sat one of the rarest bottles of Metaxa brandy known to be in circulation. If the dark green glass hadn't been his first indication, the gold filigree label and purple wax coating over the cork would have given it away. With shaking hands he lifted the precious liquor into the firelight, unable to pull his mind away from the fact that one glass of what he held sold for as much as he made in a month. When he shifted the bottle to get a better look at the label and wax seal, a large snowflake the size of his palm, tied around the neck of the bottle on a hair thin silvery thread, swung into view and caught Revel by surprise.

Gently he removed the snowflake and set the bottle aside, turning the remarkable piece of craftsmanship in his fingers. He realized, after a silent moment, that he was holding an actual supersized snowflake in his hands. It was made from the queen's will-ice, but didn't look anything like her personal snowflake that had become Arendelle's crest. This was a custom piece of artwork, each facet and spine, each hexagonal edge and fractal curve having been artfully crafted with both precision and care. Holding the ornament aloft, Revel tapped one delicate edge and watched the snowflake spin in the firelight, winking and flashing like a diamond as it rotated. A warm smile quickly overtook Revel's face as he watched the ornament spin, and somehow he knew there wasn't another snowflake like his anywhere in the world. This was the most personal gift he'd received in years, and he'd never appreciated something so much before in his life. Suddenly, he didn't feel as foolish as he had earlier that evening. It was now apparent he wasn't the only one with gift giving on the mind, and the thought of what he'd left the queen made the corners of his mouth curl.

Eagerly, the Captain looked around his quarters for somewhere to display his snowflake and decided the best place was hung in his window. That way the light could catch it and make the fractals and facets glitter. It was also directly in his line of sight while lying in bed. With deft fingers he tied the silver thread, also will-ice, to the locking mechanism of his window and stood watching the snowflake twinkle at him before returning to his new bed and easing onto the mattress. Carefully, as if expecting something unforeseen to jump out at him, Revel reclined back into his new pillows and moaned with relaxed contentment.

_Oh yes_, _she does have a point, _Revel thought as he pulled his familiar comforter over his torso and began to drift to sleep. _Goose-down really does beat packed sheep's wool and stray fabric any day. Merry Christmas, Elsa._

* * *

><p>Not nearly tired enough to retire to her room, Elsa slowly climbed the residency wing stairs and headed towards her study at a leisurely pace, humming a few notes from the last song the orchestra had played before the ball officially ended at just past ten. It had been a wonderful evening and better than she had expected…<em>much<em> better than she had expected. Despite her seemingly calm demeanor, the queen still wrestled with small episodes of anxiety whenever she found herself in large crowds. Her once debilitating fear had certainly lessened over the years, thanks primarily to Anna's patient yet forceful pushing, but she still felt the need for a healthy dose of private time after a party or a large meeting with dignitaries.

Stepping into her study and closing the door behind her was like slowly lowering herself into a hot bath, and she relaxed immediately, slumping against the door and exhaling slowly. Blissful silence engulfed her, and the only noise loud enough to reach her keen ears was the soft crackle and hiss of the fireplace. Gerda had made sure to stoke the fire, knowing that the queen would retreat to her favorite haunt directly after the party. The faint scent vanilla and sugar caught her attention, and Elsa turned towards her desk. A small silver tray with an ornate white tea pot, a single white and purple tea cup, and a stack of what smelled like freshly baked sugar cookies waited for her. She grinned happily at the gift.

_God bless you, Gerda. I don't know what I'd do without you._

Taking a moment to step out of her shoes, Elsa wiggled her sore toes, working them into the plush carpet and sighing. There was just something so wonderful about bare feet on carpet after a long night of dancing. Smoothly she slid into her high back leather chair behind her desk and carefully stacked and set aside the smattering of unimportant papers scattered there. A large brown package was also nestled in with the papers, but Elsa ignored it for the moment, pouring a steaming cup of peppermint tea instead.

_Merry Christmas, _she thought leaning back into her chair and sipping her tea contentedly while munching on a still warm cookie. After a moment of quiet relaxation, the queen leaned forward and began sifting through her pile of papers, determined to get a head start on clearing her cluttered desk before the beginning of the New Year. She knew she'd promised Anna she'd take a break for the holidays, but a queen's work was never done, especially when you ran a kingdom as large and prosperous as Arendelle had become. It was boring work, tearing open letters and skimming them before determining whether or not they needed a rush reply or if her answer could wait for a bit, so in order to pass the time, the queen turned to an old, familiar habit.

Barely wiggling her fingers, Elsa released a puff of arctic mist that quickly spread across her desk and accumulated into four glittering blue dervishes. After a moment the small cyclones formed into cohesive shapes that instantly became recognizable as tiny ice sculptures of Anna, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. The little ice people, no more than eight inches tall, came to life with just a thought from the queen, dusting the last bits of snow and ice from their clothing and looking around. Little Ice Anna perked up immediately and waved at her sister before striding away to explore Elsa's cluttered desk with Kristoff in tow. Ice Olaf and Sven amused themselves by beginning a game a tag.

The queen discovered early on that she had the ability to create animated ice, and it had been this revelation that had saved her sanity during her thirteen years of isolation from her family. Dolls were one thing. Young Elsa had loved to play with them, but they couldn't ever replace her sister's infectious smile, or her mother's understanding expressions, or her father's looks of approval. Dolls were just cloth and cotton come to life through a child's imagination, but her ice was different. Elsa learned how to craft small figures with startling likeness to their human counterparts and imbue them with the ability of motion and expression. She'd never figured out how to make them speak, Olaf and Marshmallow were still a mystery to the queen, but she could make them move and dance and play with a small push from her mind. It was these ice friends who kept her company through her long, lonely years, and the queen hadn't exactly dropped the habit of conjuring them when in the privacy of her room or study.

She watched idly as Little Ice Anna climbed a sizable stack of papers while Kristoff searched for her. Just as he neared the stack Anna pounced on him, the two of them tumbled to the ground in a tangle of flailing limbs. Sven decided to forgo his game of tag and join the pile, Olaf running gleefully beside him. For a few moments the four of them wrestled about until Kristoff pulled his little wife free and dusted her off. Ice Anna shoved him playfully, but he caught her hand when she began to move away and brought her close to him, swaying gently from side to side, mimicking a common couple's dance. Anna laughed happily and stepped into rhythm with him, the two swirling across the queen's desk, leaving behind a trail of glittering ice in their wake. After a few turns, Ice Anna turned to her flesh and blood sister with an expectant look, and the queen nearly rolled her eyes. It was a bit unnerving how lifelike these ice creations could be because Elsa knew exactly what Anna was asking for.

Waving her hand again, Elsa created a tiny replica of herself, clad in her Snow Queen dress, who demurely joined her sister and Kristoff at the center of the table. Anna clapped happily and offered her hand for a dance, but Ice Elsa politely declined, motioned for her and Kristoff to continue their dance while she, Sven, and Olaf watched. But Anna wouldn't budge, motioning with her hands that her sister needed someone to dance with. A sudden thought seemed to strike the little ice figure, and she planted herself on the ground in front of Kristoff and put both hands against the wood grain. Instantly a small patch of frost appeared, and with her little icy finger, Anna scribed a name into the frost for flesh and blood Elsa to read.

"You're joking," Elsa said to the ice figure, a slightly unamused look on her face. Ice Anna pursed her lips and crossed her arms in an eerie mimic of how the real Anna pouted. Elsa rolled her eyes this time and sighed, trying to keep a smile off her face while trying to understand why she was giving into the whims of an animated doll of her creation.

With the flick of her wrist, the queen conjured a perfect ice replica of Captain Revel who strode confidently towards the royal group and swept into one of his perfect bows in front of Ice Elsa and Anna. Both sisters respectfully bowed in return, but the youngest sister seemed to have been struck by another idea and ran off across the desk looking for something. Ice Revel had just begun conversing with Ice Elsa when Anna reappeared from behind a stack of books with a paper sword in hand and dove at the Captain. Revel expertly danced away, seeming to laugh as he did. Anna stood from her crouch and tossed the Captain another paper sword, and the two circled one another like fencers in an arena.

Flesh and blood Elsa took this opportunity to pull her attention away from her ice creations and their antics and onto the strange brown package she'd set aside. She'd not seen the package in her study earlier that afternoon, so the queen surmised someone had left it on her desk while she was attending the Yule Ball. Curious as to where this heavy, butcher paper bound parcel had come from, Elsa looked for a card and found a small piece of paper tied onto one of the strings securing the bundle. It was addressed to her in her given name, not her royal title. That left only a handful of people the parcel could have come from, and her curiosity increased.

Carefully, Elsa cut the twine and peeled back the brown butcher paper revealing a very old, very worn leather tome and a note resting atop it. She unfolded the letter and felt her brow furrow.

_Elsa,_

_I hope I'm not being to forward by giving you this, and I hope the package gets to you before Christmas morning. I remembered a conversation you and I had during one of our sessions about your love for ethnic fairy tales from different cultures. You told me how your father would read them to you and the Princess at night, and how your current copies had fallen into disrepair over the years. Throughout my travels, I've come across many collections of stories, but this by far was my greatest find. Within these worn pages you will find at least sixty stories gathered from the Far East, France, Russia, and Germany. I believe there are even a few Norwegian stories here as well. I do hope there are a few new fables for your enjoyment, and, if not, at least you will have a new tome to add to your library. _

_Merry Christmas, and I look forward to the continuation of our sessions after the New Year._

_— CRH _

Elsa felt a warm flush work through her system as she lowered the note and stared down at the tome in front of her. Gingerly she pulled open the book, the binding snapping and crackling as she thumbed through it, marveling at the quality of the print and the detail put into each page. It was like looking at small works of individual art with golden scroll work and fanciful creatures painted with loving care into the margins. To say the book was a treasure would have been a huge understatement. Tomes like these didn't come cheaply and were oftentimes handed down from generation to generation, much like the books in the royal library. Some were purchased, but most had come from years of collecting from different generations.

Somehow, Elsa knew that Revel hadn't just picked up this book while traveling. The edges were well worn with use, the leather along the spine and edge of the book soft from countless fingers rubbing against it, but it was still well taken care of. The pages hadn't yellowed much and the spine was still in wonderful shape. No, this wasn't just a find in some market, this was a book from a private collection, Revel's private collection, and the queen felt such an explosion of warmth work through her chest she feared she'd start sweating.

_I gave him a bed and a bottle of brandy, but he gave me an heirloom._

Suddenly she couldn't keep the smile from her face as she continued to carefully thumb through the pages, picking through different stories written in different languages. She recognized Russian and French immediately, two languages out of the six the queen knew fluently, and flipped to the index at the front of the book to see what tales were listed. The queen was so engrossed in the tome, and in the flurry of butterflies knocking around in her stomach, that she didn't notice the little ice figure of her and Revel had begun dancing alongside Kristoff and Anna. Only when the two brushed past her elbow did Elsa look up in surprise.

The little ice replicas of her and the Captain weren't dancing the complex Five Step they'd danced earlier that night, but rather a common slow sweeping three count waltz. Around and around they went, perfectly in step with one another. Elsa propped her head up with her hand under her chin and watched the two dance, captivated by the glittering ice personas as they spun in time with music she couldn't hear. As the dance progressed, she barely noticed that Ice Elsa and Revel were getting closer to one another, bodies pulled together as if by strong magnets. Closer and closer they gravitated until the two were barely a hairsbreadth apart and stopped dancing altogether. For half a heartbeat they remained frozen like statues; Revel looking down at her and Elsa looking up at him, tenderness and longing written on both their icy faces. The stillness ended as both moved as one, leaning in, waiting for the moment when….

Elsa realized with a thrill what was about to happen and slammed her hands down onto the desk, dispersing her ice people in a poof of glimmering snow. Heart hammering in her throat and face flushing with so much heat she could have boiled an egg on her forehead, she leaned back wide eyed and slowly exhaled.

"Ok…ok maybe it _is_ time for bed," she mumbled to herself, putting an icy hand against her burning forehead. "Yeah, it's definitely time for bed."

Rising, the queen quickly made her way towards the door and managed to put a shaking hand atop the handle and pull it open before something stopped her and she turned back around. The leather book still lay open on her desk like an abandoned child, a few pages slowly fluttering back into place from where she'd brushed up against them. Biting her lower lip, Elsa glanced between the tome and the hallway, torn between leaving it there and taking it with her. Decision made, she ran back in and snatched up the book before her courage failed her and hustled out of her study, door slamming shut behind her.

The queen quickly returned to her room and undressed, slipping under her covers but unable to bring herself to sleep just yet. Propping herself up with her pillows and lighting the small bedside lamps next to her, Elsa pulled the leather tome onto her lap and riffled through the pages until she came to a story that had previously caught her eye when thumbing through it in the study. It was a French tale, that much was evident, called "_La Belle et la Bête_". Eager to begin, the queen snuggled down into her comforter, propped the book on her bent legs, and prepared for a night of reading as fresh snow began to fall across the kingdom of Arendelle, heralding Christmas Day in a curtain of white.


	11. Chapter 11

"I can't believe you gifted me a bed," Revel laughed from the barrel he was sitting on, left foot braced on the edge as he attempted to lace his suede boots.

"Are you complaining?" Elsa asked shooting him a sideways smile over her shoulder.

"How did you sneak that past my men? Hell, how did you even get it _into_ my chambers? It has to be at least twice the size of my old one, and the frame is made of solid oak!"

The queen gave the Captain a knowing smile that made his scalp tingle. "I have my ways."

"It was magic, wasn't it? You must have more magic than your ice, and you're just not telling us."

"Oh of course," Elsa chuckled as she slipped off the pair of fingerless gloves she used to prevent blisters from forming when handling a sword and tossed them at Revel. The Captain caught them smartly and set them on the shelf next to him. "Not only am I the Snow Queen, I also have the ability to shrink things with my mind."

"Seems like a power that could come in handy," Revel shrugged.

"Depends on who you're talking to and what it's being used _on_," Else said with a catty smile that sent a shiver down the Captain's spine. "But what I would like to know is how you delivered your gift to my study."

Revel leaned back against the wall behind him and gave the queen a smug grin. "I have skeleton keys to the entire palace."

"Well, that's certainly…reassuring. Though with the grin you're wearing, I'm not sure if I feel entirely safe now. Maybe I'll start icing my door shut at night."

"What's to say there aren't secret passages in the walls?" the Captain quipped with a nonchalant shrug, his grin still in place.

"Sneak up on me in the middle of the night and we'll see who has the faster reflexes," she warned and summoned a shimmering ball of arctic magic into her raised hand for emphasis.

"I would never," Revel assured her, sliding off the barrel and dusting off his loose black breeches.

It was a week after Christmas, and the glow of the holidays lingered in the air like the smell of baked goods. Even with the decorations having been pulled down the day after the New Year, Arendelle could still feel the echo of the winter season as more snow continued to fall, blanketing the kingdom and countryside in pristine layers of glittering white.

As promised, Revel and Elsa's sessions resumed the first Monday of January, both still flushed from the holidays, and the time they spent in the evenings seemed to revolve more around idle conversation now than any actual training. The two would practice a few techniques, mostly things Revel knew Elsa had down pat, before their conversations gradually took over and any hope at practice died. Tonight was different though. Revel was determined to get back on track with teaching the queen, and this evening he had a special exercise in mind.

"So, you told me earlier you wanted to try something new. Well, I'm open for suggestions," Elsa remarked coming to stand in front of him, hands on her hips. Revel swallowed and fought to keep his eyes glued to her face and not on the gentle curves of her body.

"Defense," he said with an exhale.

"Haven't we already covered basic offense and defense?"

"We have, but that's not what I'm getting at. The defense I'm talking about is shield defense." Standing, the Captain walked to his weapons rack and pulled down a sizable round shield. Elsa recognized it as a classic Saxon shield, the circular edge banded with an iron rim and an impressive polished brass boss at its center. Revel hefted it easily, sliding his left arm into the leather straps in the back.

"You know the basic point of a shield, correct?" Revel asked stopping in front of Elsa.

"To make sure the pointy end of whatever is aimed at me doesn't find its way under my skin," she replied with as straight a face as she could manage.

"Precisely, but a shield can be more than just a defensive tool. For instance," Revel turned to the side until he was in profile so that Elsa could see his shield arm better, "you can shove with a shield, putting needed distance between you and an opponent, or forcing them wherever you want them to go. Do you remember those forearm blocking techniques we did the first month?"

Elsa nodded.

"The same principal applies while using a shield. Blows can be stopped or redirected. You can catch a weapon on a shield's edges and pull it away from your opponent. You can strike also with the metal edge, aiming for you opponents face, neck, or chest. And if you put a spike on the boss of the shield you can even turn it into a piercing weapon. So you see, there are advantages to knowing how to use a shield properly. Against popular belief, it's not just for hiding behind when the battle gets to rough."

"I see. So what will we be working on tonight?"

"Learning the basics, but first I want to see what kind of shield suits you."

"In the past I've always just raised an ice wall…it's worked out pretty well," Elsa said watching the Captain sling his shield over his shoulder, an action that seemed second nature to him, and walk over to the barrel he'd previously been seated on.

"I agree, in the past that's worked, but I suspect there was a fair bit of luck to it as well."

"Are you saying the two arrows I stopped with an ice wall was just a matter of luck?" the queen asked raising an eyebrow.

"Please don't take offense, but yes. You saw it coming and reacted. It was a split second decision that could have ended tragically had you been a hairsbreadth slower."

"Isn't that what you do with a shield? You see an attack and raise it in time to keep whatever aimed at you from killing you?"

"I understand your incredulity, so let me demonstrate." Before Revel had even stopped speaking he'd reached into the barrel and pulled out a perfectly round sandbag the size of his fist. With expert precision, he launched it at the queen and wasn't surprised when the projectile struck her squarely in the right shoulder. A split second later her ice wall rose from the ground, but the connection had already been made.

"Ow…damn!" Elsa winced, rubbing her shoulder. "What was in that thing?"

"Packed sand," Revel smiled pleasantly and lifted another sandbag. This time Elsa was ready and raised her shield, the sandbag bouncing off harmlessly with a hollow thud, but Revel hadn't meant to throw only one bag and launched a second after quickly skipping to the left. This bag caught her in the ribs. A third bag caught her in the hip, and she swore loudly.

"God, all right, all right!" Elsa shouted after a fourth bag managed to hit her before she was able to raise her shield in time. "I get your point. Ow, those things hurt worse than the bigger ones."

"They're meant to," Revel smiled. "Now that I've proven my point, let's begin again. Make a shield."

"Ass," Elsa mumbled rubbing her sore hip and scowling. The sandbag had caught her right on the bone, and she knew there was going to be a nasty bruise there in the morning.

"We've already established that the title fits me," Revel said with one of his infuriating smiles.

Elsa fought the urge to say more and spared a glance at the shields lining the wall. Most of them were U shaped with a flat top, a European style that had become popular a few years after her great grandfather's reign, but a few traditional round shields remained. Focusing on those, Elsa willed her ice to pool along the length of her right arm. Immediately it obeyed and began congealing there, layers upon layers stacking atop one another like bandages until she had a sizable ice sleeve on her arm. With a small mental push, the ice began to rapidly expand outward along the front of her forearm, fractals interlacing like crystalline fingers, snapping and crackling into place. Before Revel could blink three times, Elsa had formed a perfect replica of the shield slung across his back. He could see what appeared to be board slats, complete with individual wood grain and studs hammered around the outer band to keep it in place. It was, again, a magnificent piece of work, and the Captain found himself yet again blown away by Elsa's ability to copy things with her ice with such precision and so little time for observation The only marked difference between Elsa's shield and Revel's, aside from hers being made of crystal blue ice, was the stylized royal snowflake boss at the center of the shield.

"You continue to amaze me," Revel exhaled, taking a closer look at the shield. The ice sleeve she'd used to conjure the defensive tool remained, Elsa's right forearm completely encased in aquamarine ice.

"I just did as you asked," Elsa pointed out, feeling heat rise into her cheeks.

"Can you make it a little smaller?"

"Smaller?"

Revel nodded, taking either side of the ice shield in his hands as if measuring it. "This is just a bit too large for you. Bring it in two or three inches so the weight is more evenly distributed."

Elsa obeyed and pulled in her magic like sucking water through a straw, the shield shrinking to fit his specification.

"Perfect. Does that feel a little better?"

Elsa tested his question by raising her arm and rotating it, feeling the ice crack and split as the tight muscles of her forearm flexed, only to reform a half second later.

"Yes, actually. It's not quite as cumbersome."

"Perfect," the Captain smiled. "Any particular reason it's on your right arm rather than you left?"

"You know I'm ambidextrous," Elsa said quietly. It was a little known fact in Arendelle that their queen could use her left hand as effectively as her right. The ability had startled and confounded her tutors in the beginning, and they had insisted she make her right hand her dominant hand. When the young queen had asked why it was so taboo for her to use her left hand, Bishop Arren had explained, as gently as a man of the cloth could, that Christ was seen as the right hand of God whereas Satan was the left.

"Anything opposite Christ is of the Devil, Majesty. Therefore, you must always use your right hand lest the Devil use your left for wicked intentions."

The Bishop's explanation had galled her for years. There wasn't anything significant, religious or secular, about the fact that she could use her left hand as easily as her right. To Elsa, it was just another form of religious superstition she had to live with, so in order to appease Arren and the rest of the pious members of her council she became ambidextrous. Still, whenever possible, she would use her left hand, as it felt more natural.

"I know you are; I just didn't know if it was a matter of preference or comfort. It doesn't make any difference to me which arm you choose to use."

"It's a little of both really. I feel more comfortable blocking blows with my right arm while using the left to attack."

"Your body, your rules," Revel shrugged and a smile. "As I said, it makes no difference to me. Now, let's try the sandbags again."

Elsa was ready for him this time, raising her shield the instant his arm snapped forward and released another sand bag. She felt the concussion of the bag as it struck her shield, shockwaves spreading out across the crystalline surface. Peering over the rim, the queen sidestepped in time with the Captain as he let another projectile loose, this one springing off the edge of her shield and spinning away.

"Good, much better. You see the benefit of being able to take your shield with you?"

"Yes, I can see the benefit. So what now? I've created my shield," she wiggled her shield arm, "and you've made a point of hitting me numerous times with hardened sandbags, most likely exhausting your supply. So what else did you have planned?"

"What makes you think I've exhausted my supply?" Revel asked with a wide grin and launched a bag at her. With a squeak, she ducked and jumped back, feeling the force of the bag hit her shield a half second later. Peering through the wavy translucency, Elsa could see Revel moving to her exposed left side and dared a look over the rim. To her great surprise he was almost behind her, arm raised to throw another bag. Moving purely on reflex, she spun around and blocked a bag that would have hit her in the center of the back.

"Very good! I can tell your reflexes have greatly improved since the beginning of our sessions."

"I've had a good teacher," she replied a little breathlessly as she continued to spin and block.

"You're a good student," Revel retorted with a grin.

"Yes well — damn!" Elsa stumbled and would have fallen hard had she not pin wheeled her arms and regained her balance. Balancing on one foot, she winced and rubbed her shin where a bag had skipped across the ground and connected with it.

"Oh, that stings….that really, _really_ stings."

"Apologies," Revel offered trying to keep from laughing, "but you'll have to protect more than just your torso during a fight. An attacker will aim for whatever opening they can get, and people oftentimes forget to block their shins."

"Lesson well learned," Elsa grumbled. "At least I can explain away _this_ bruise."

"I'm sure you'll think of a convincing story to tell a curious onlooker," the Captain intoned over his shoulder as he walked around the training chamber and retrieved his thrown sandbags. "If you'd like to take a break, I certainly wouldn't blame you. After all, it will take a few more sessions to get back to as sharp as you were before our holiday break, and I wouldn't want to push too terribly hard."

"You just said my reflexes had improved, and now you're saying I've gotten lax?" Elsa asked with true incredulity in her voice.

"Not at all. I'm saying that the holidays can make a person…soft."

Revel, sandbags cluttered in his arms, returned to the barrel and deposited them. Just as he was about to turn around something hard and very cold hit him in the back of the head. Momentarily stunned, the Captain reached back and pulled a chunk of snow from his hair, the icy particles melting almost instantly against his warm fingers. Slowly he turned towards the queen and was met with another perfectly placed snowball, this one exploding across the side of his face and making him gasp and stumbled against the barrel.

"Why Captain," Elsa gasped in mock surprise, "have you gotten _slow_ over the past few weeks? That snowball should have never hit you."

"Perhaps we're both out of practice," Revel surmised with a slowly spreading grin. He reached for the barrel and felt two more snowballs hit him, one in the back of the head again, and one against the shield still slung across his back.

"Raise your shield, Captain. Come on, I assume you know how to use it, correct?" Elsa quipped raising her own and readying another snowball, Revel's infectious grin catching her lips.

The chamber erupted in a flurry of activity as both sandbags and snowballs whizzed through the air. Elsa moved like a dancer, skipping and spinning as she ducked bags and retaliated with her snowballs, laughing as she did. Revel laughed along with her, hair dusted with speckles of ice and snow, the front of his shield almost completely iced over. Despite Elsa's fast reflexes, and pinpoint accuracy when throwing her ice, the Captain had ground speed and force on his side and quickly gained the upper hand. More sandbags found their mark somewhere on her than her snowballs did on him, and in an attempt to even the playing field, Elsa hardened her snowballs to the same consistency as the sandbags and put more force behind her throw. She was rewarded with a few pained grunts from the Captain; he still had the upper hand, but the queen aimed to change that.

After deflecting a sandbag that could have easily connected with her shoulder, Elsa stamped her foot hard against the packed earth and released a wave of arctic magic. A large snowflake erupted under her and spread quickly across the floor, and in seconds there was no place either party could put their feet that wasn't entirely ice.

"Wait…w-wait! That's not fair!" Revel exclaimed as he attempted to maintain his balance as his feet lost traction and began to slide off in different directions. Try as he might, he tipped backwards and fell on his ass with a grunt. Elsa stood demurely at the center of the chamber, shield at her side. She began gliding calmly towards him as easily as if she were walking on polished marble and not frictionless ice.

"You once told me all was fair in combat," Elsa grinned impishly. "I just put the odds over in my favor."

"I…damn," Revel sighed, attempting to standing but finding it difficult to get his footing without first removing his shield.

"You're not going to hit me if I take this thing off, are you?" he asked warily, green eyes watching the queen.

Elsa shrugged, impish smile still in place. "No promises."

Revel detached his shield from his arm, sliding it away from him with a forceful push. "There. Now I am at your mercy, my Queen."

Elsa rolled her eyes and watched him, bemusedly, trying to stand. On his hands and knees, Revel managed to get his feet under him and slide into an upright position, arms held out for balance as if he were walking on a tightrope.

"Not so difficult now, is it?" Elsa asked, left hand resting on her hip while her right dangled at her side, ice shield still attached to it.

"I've never had good footing with ice."

"Well, you've certainly not fumbled too terribly around me."

Revel laughed nervously and carefully shuffled towards her, tentatively placing one foot in front of the other. He managed to get next to her and stood a little straighter, surveying the state of his training chamber with a happy sigh. There were sandbags and half melted snowballs all over the place; a few weapons had been knocked from their stands on the weapon rack.

"Well, that was an eventful session. You really do have excellent aim. A couple of those snowballs will definitely leave bruises."

"As will your sandbags," Elsa added, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. She tried hard not to snigger, not to let on that something was amiss, but couldn't keep back a tiny giggle as she watched him. Revel noticed her barely hidden mirth a half second too late as a massive ball of snow fell from where Elsa had suspended it in the rafters and landed squarely on the Captain's head. Taken by surprise, Revel jumped at the sudden shock of cold snow burying his head and lost his footing. Desperately clutching at whatever he could to keep from falling again, he grabbed hold of the queen's arm and pulled her down with him, the two tangled in a mess of limbs and snow.

The moment froze when the two realized what had happened and where they were, Elsa straddling Revel's left leg and laying against his chest, and how close they were to one another. Faces very nearly touching, a spark of volcanic fire leapt between them and exploded across their bodies, eventually pooling in previously unfelt locations. The Captain and Queen lay motionless for a span of heartbeats, stray flakes of snow swirling around them in glittering wonder that mirrored the sparking wonder felt between both individuals, until Elsa broke into a fit giggles she couldn't control. Fragile silence broken, Revel joined her in a laugh, resting his head against the icy floor and staring up at the shadowed rafters above.

"I'm sorry, that was unfair of me," Elsa finally managed after her giggles had subsided.

"No, that was perfect. You are as much a prankster as your sister. She used to do things like that all the time, only with buckets of water."

"She and I are cut from the same cloth," she sighed pushing herself off Revel and onto her knees beside him. "Are you all right though?"

"Nothing broken if that's what you're asking. Though my pride might be a bit bruised, I'll manage."

Elsa dispersed her ice with a wave of her hand, the chamber floor once again returned to packed earth. Standing first, the Captain offered her his hand and helped her to her feet.

"Now that you and I are sufficiently wet and icy…well me more than you…would you care for a cup of tea?"

"Thank you, Revel, but I believe I need to be getting back to my chambers. The next couple of weeks are going to be…trying," she said by way of explanation even though the idea of sitting down with the Captain and sharing a kettle of hot tea sounded like an enticingly wonderful idea.

"Ah yes, mid-January. Will it really be here in just a few days?"

"I'm afraid so," Elsa sighed deeply.

"Perhaps we ought to postpone our sessions until February," The Captain offered as he walked the queen to the door as was his habit after each session.

"No, please continue them."

"Then I will be here waiting for you to grace my chamber with your effervescent presence," Revel smiled taking Elsa's left hand in his and bowing over it, his lips gently touching her knuckles.

"Is this your attempt at flattery?" she chuckled despite feeling the familiar flight of battle armor butterflies take off in her stomach.

"You said once before that flattery will get me nowhere with you," Revel grinned as he reached for the door handle.

"I did say that, didn't I?" Elsa flung her cloak over her shoulders and fastened the clasp with deft fingers. Task done, she stepped up to the Captain and smiled. "You are a charming man, Captain Revel, but I choose not to be charmed by you. At least…not tonight."

A sudden compulsion overtook Revel, and before he could stop himself, the Captain leaned in and lightly kissed Elsa on the cheek. It was a shock to them both but not necessarily an unpleasant one. The queen felt her face ignite like an inferno and knew her cheeks had turned a dark shade of red. Revel seemed to be fairing about as well, his ears turning a brilliant pink.

"Good night, Captain," Elsa said in a small voice, the butterflies rolling around in her stomach suddenly making their way into her chest.

"Good night, Elsa," Revel replied and pulled open the door for her. The queen silently slipped into the darkness without a backwards glance, and the Captain watched her go. Only when she'd entered the castle through the servants' entrance did he finally close the door and exhale the breath he'd been holding.

* * *

><p>Mid-January hit like a freak hail storm rolling in off the sea, tossing the once tranquil atmosphere of Arendelle on its head and beating it like a dead horse. It was always like this after the holiday season. Elsa rode the holiday high for as long as she could because she knew once January came it was only a matter of time before she came crashing back down to earth, and this particular mid-January season was an intensely harsh one.<p>

The dread of mid-January had many facets and reasons. For one, it was the coldest, harshest time of year in the fjord kingdom. Mother Nature ruled this season with an arctic fist, and she found it amusing to pull insanely cold air in from the mountains, sometimes so cold they were able to deadlock the fjord in solid ice, and bring torrents of snow and freezing rain along with it. This wasn't uncommon for the people of Arendelle, but this mid-January season was harsher than normal, and the sudden change instantly made Elsa uneasy. Being a child of frost and snow, she longed to be outside in the stabbing cold, face in the biting wind, and hands in the frozen water. She wanted to embrace the cold, to become one with it, and that was where the second half of the hatred for mid-January came in.

The Spring Trade Summit was now only months away, meaning the queen had invitations to write, trade agreements to look over, new partners to solicit and old partners to pacify all while taking care of the endless ebb and flow of visiting dignitaries. You would think that the harsh cold would be enough to drive most ambassadors away like a team of horses running from a fire, but it was the opposite with Arendelle. If anything, it gave the dignitaries an excuse to stay longer if the fjord froze, meaning Elsa was forced to act the part of dutiful hostess all while trying to run a kingdom. She'd done it so many times before it shouldn't bother her, but she was a creature of habit and control, and when she couldn't control the weather in her favor-because fighting Mother Nature's natural fury with her magic would have been like throwing kerosene on a bonfire- or remove herself from her hospitality duties, she became increasingly tense and nerve frayed.

Elsa had all of these…festivities to look forward to without even mentioning that Anna had become almost unbearable to be around as her pregnancy deepened. It had begun with light mood swings and hunger pains, but now Anna flipped from one emotion to the next like a jester switching masks: happy one minute and screaming at Kristoff the next. The princess had taken it upon herself to decorate the nursery, and the little freedom the queen had given her sister over a particular room in the palace had quickly turned into a horribly regrettable decision.

"That's not the shade of blue we agreed on," Anna glowered at her husband.

"It is! This is the swatch you gave me to give to the paint maker. This is the color you wanted, and it's the color we're using."

"Like hell we are. That's the wrong color, and I'll prove it!" Snatching the color swatch from the low table next to her, the princess pressed it against the tester wall and looked back at her husband expectantly.

"See, they don't look a thing alike."

"Have you gone blind? They're the same exact color!"

"No. They. Aren't." Anna was about to say more when she saw her sister quickly duck past the door. "Elsa! Hey, Elsa! Come in here and take a look at this will you?"

The queen quietly swore under her breath, already ten minutes late for an important meeting with Duke Ferdinand. She would have kept on walking, pretending not to have heard her sister, but Anna poked her head around the corner and called for her again.

"Just take a look and confirm to my color blind husband that these two colors are nothing alike."

Elsa sighed and turned back towards the nursery. She glanced at the color on the wall and the swatch in her sister's hand and felt a vein pulse just above her left eyebrow.

"Anna, I'm sorry, but Kristoff's right. They are the same color."

"What!? No, no, that's not right. They're different!"

"I'm afraid not."

"Thank you," Kristoff exhaled with a relieved sigh. "Can we now move on to more important things…like me starting on the crib?"

"God, the both of you are impossible," Anna grumbled and threw the paint swatch away angrily. "Half the time I think you're just taking his side to shut me up."

Elsa gave her sister an unamused look. "I don't take sides, Anna. I never have."

"That's a lie, and you know it."

Elsa's face darkened and she felt a telltale dip in temperature. "I don't have time for this, Anna. I don't have time to argue with you, nor do I have the patience right now. Come and speak to me when your moods have evened out."

Elsa turned and left the nursery, leaving a fuming Anna in the care of an exasperated Kristoff. It wasn't the best way to leave an already rocky situation, but she had other, more important, matters to attend to, and none of them had to do with Anna's pickiness about paint colors.

That had been Monday. As the week trudged on, like a man trying to drag a body uphill, the tense mood around the palace slowly intensifying. Anna's moods did not improve, and Elsa found herself spending increasingly more time locked in her study in order to keep away from her sister. Wednesday brought with it a screaming match between Kristoff and his wife, the two at their wits end with one another. In an angry rush the mountain man had packed a small bag and headed out to the stables, announcing that he needed a few days alone to clear his head, calm his temper, and, should he be needed, could be found with his troll family in the hills. This left Elsa alone with an irate Anna who flipped between being volcanically angry with her husband and breaking down into fits of heavy sobbing. Even Olaf was at a loss and joined Kristoff and Sven in their trek into the mountains.

Later that same day a fire broke out near the wharf. Nothing malicious, just a lantern left to burn too close to a stack of hay, but the damage had been absolute. The building had burned to ash and cinders, and had it not been for the fast reaction of the merchants and guards the waterfront could have very easily gone up in flames. Elsa had received word of the accident minutes after the flames had been contained, and by the time she arrived at the wharf that fire was extinguished. She saw Revel and a handful of grim faced guards sifting through the still scalding rubble, every inch of exposed skin stained with inky black soot as they pulled smoking beams aside searching for victims and survivors. The queen had immediately stepped in to help, casting her magic over the area and effectively cooling the ashy destruction. The added measure of magic was a great help, and the rescuers were able to pull a survivor from the wreckage. It wasn't until Revel had carried the limp, ash covered body out of the debris that Elsa recognized the little girl as Sonja, one of her favorite children from town who helped decorate the Christmas tree in the Great Hall each year.

"Is she all right," Elsa had asked, rushing over to the Captain's side.

"We won't know until the physician cleans her up. Her hand's a mess, but it doesn't look like anything else is broken. She's got some nasty burns though."

Revel gently placed the girl onto a piece of sail cloth suspended between two wooden poles and instructed two of his guards to rush her to the physician. A pale, balding man who could only be Sonja's father ran after them. As they departed, the little girls hand, which had been dangling over the edge, fell open, releasing the object she'd been clutching before succumbing to unconsciousness.

Elsa bent and picked it up, breath freezing in her throat. It was the little bear ornament she'd made Sonja two years ago. The ice had distorted in the heat, but the shape of the animal was still recognizable. With a wave of her hand, she reformed the bear and handed it to Revel, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

"Give this to her when she wakes."

Revel nodded woodenly and set off towards the local physician after instructing a squad of his guards to cordon off the area. Elsa surveyed the damage with sad sigh. It could have been much worse, but the building that had burned was one of the well-stocked storehouses meant to supply this area of the kingdom during the winter. With it burned to ashes, it put a strain on the other storehouses, meaning Elsa would have to go through the lists of all of Arendelle's stored goods and redistribute them evenly amongst the people. It would take all night and probably a good portion of her free time tomorrow to work out the numbers, and she felt the weight of her title settle like a boulder on her shoulders. Grimly, she returned to the castle under guard, her mind still unable to push the image of little Sonja's limp body being lifted from the rubble. If she lived, she'd bear deep scars. If she didn't….Elsa wouldn't allow herself to think that. For sanity's sake, she just couldn't.

By the time Thursday rolled around, Elsa was exhausted and beyond the point of done with everything that pertained to her royal duties. The fire the day before had left her shaken, and when she inquired after Sonja's health the prognosis was bleak. The girl would live but she'd be disfigured. The burns on her back and arms were severe and would most definitely scar, but what worried the physician was Sonja's left hand. It had been crushed under a beam and had to be amputated. The news had hit Elsa like a well-placed punch to the ribs. Bitter sweet news was oftentimes worse than bad news; at least with bad news there was a finality to it. Sonja would live but without her left hand and with horrible scars on her back and arms. Too numb to do much else at the moment, she instructed Kai to prepare a care package for the family. If anything she could at least ease their pain as much as possible while they recovered.

As the day progressed, her bleak mood only worsened, and, when emotionally compromised Anna was thrown into the mix, Elsa's otherwise controlled temper quickly became volatile. Knowing where her anger could take her, she instructed Gerda to help the princess in any way so long as she was kept as far from her as possible while she entertained four unannounced dignitaries who'd come calling earlier in the week. Elsa had to struggle to fit the men into her already packed schedule, cutting out eating breakfast and lunch for Thursday and Friday in order to receive them properly. As a consequence, she also had to cut her session with Revel for both days in exchange for some much needed rest; though sleep was a reluctant companion at night. Elsa found herself staring blankly at her ceiling, wishing for rest while the hours ticked by. It didn't help matters that her stress level was now aggressively high, and, with no way to bleed the anxiety from her body, the queen was left to deal with the back-build of emotions alone. Friday was when her luck seemed to take a turn for the worst, and the week from hell came to a head.

She'd woken late and fallen out of bed upon realizing what the time was, jarring old and new bruises. Dressing in a hurry, Elsa had broken her back bodice cord and had to send for Gerda to fetch a new one, making her extremely late for her impromptu meeting. Her tardiness wasn't received well, and, after two hours of heated debating, the visiting dignitary and his entourage left the palace in a huff with no trade agreement established.

"Young monarchs," the dignitary had muttered as he emerged from the audience chambers, "so much room for improvement."

Elsa had been beside herself with barely contained indignation and fury, and it took every ounce of self-control not to ice the man where he stood. The second meeting went more smoothly, though not by much, the diplomat from the Asham kingdom more than willing to discuss a spice trade agreement. The agreed currency exchange was a little higher than she would have liked, but with her luck this hellish week, she'd take what she could get.

That would be the only highlight of her day. Despite dinner being one of her favorite meals, hearty beef stew with roasted squash, fresh yeast rolls, and Gerda's special bread pudding, the dinner table was cold between the sisters, neither really speaking to the other unless asking for a dish to be passed for fear of starting an argument. Exhausted, stressed beyond reason, and frustrated to the point of throwing things, Elsa excused herself before she finished eating, unable to stand being ignored by Anna as if they were children again pretending the other was invisible because of hurt feelings.

She returned to her study a little hungry and flopped into her high back chair next to the crackling fireplace, unable to shake her darkening mood. Her mood was so dark, in fact, she toyed with the idea of canceling yet another session with Revel but thought better of it.

_Perhaps the stress release of hitting things will make this twice damned week a little better._

But if she was expecting Revel to be in better spirits she was terribly mistaken.

* * *

><p>Captain Revel Handler's week had begun on a less than stellar note and had continued on a downward spiral ever since the wharf fire. Nothing seemed to want to go right for him. It was like the universe had set itself against every move he made and countered each attempt at serenity with ever bigger obstacles.<p>

First had been the fire. He still recalled the panicked look on Sigmund's face as the big guard ran into his office and announced that one of the storehouses was on fire. Revel had leapt into action and called for a water brigade to form up around the building. His men had moved as smoothly as oiled clockwork and a chain of bodies quickly stretched from the water's edge all the way to the burning building. Buckets of freezing cold water were passed down the line with shivering hands until the flames no longer licked the dry wood and the acrid black smoke no longer boiled in the sky, but the damage had been done: the fire ate everything within the building and left only ash in its wake. When Elsa had arrived and doused the area in arctic mist, the Captain had felt a flush of relief pass through him. The queen could smother any wayward flame that might spring up far faster than his men could carry water buckets. So, Revel had thought the storehouse burning had been worst of it. They had lost produce and stored goods, but those could be replaced. It wasn't until he and his men began sifting through the rubble that he made the horrifying discovery of a little girl pinned under a beam.

In that moment his week went from bad to worse. Holding the little limp body in his arms had brought unwanted memories boiling back into his conscious thoughts. Grinding his back teeth and breathing deeply through his nostrils in order to keep from vomiting, Revel had carried the injured girl to a waiting stretcher. He didn't think his heart could sink any farther until he saw the tears in Elsa's eyes as she held an ice ornament in her hands and asked him to give it to the little girl when she awoke. Revel wanted to gently tell her that the chances of the child ever waking again were slim, but he couldn't bring himself to say those words. Not now, not with the memories of blood and bodies filling his mind. He'd wordlessly taken the ornament and headed towards the town physician, heart sinking farther into his stomach the farther he got from Elsa.

After that day a black mood overtook the Captain. His once limitless cheer and easy smile disappeared behind a cloud of ill-tempered fog that left his men scurrying to get out of his way. Even Sigmund sensed the change, and remained unusually tight lipped around his superior. As the week progressed, it became clear to Revel that the storehouse fire was only the beginning of his troubles. A day after the fire, an angry mob of wharf workers and residents marched on the city watch tower at the center of town demanding to know if rations would be distributed to the poor families who depended on the burned down storehouse for food. Revel assured them they would be compensated and food and any other necessities would be available as soon as the other storehouses could be cataloged and their supplies equally divided. This did little to calm the agitated mob, and all thought of peaceful negotiation went up in smoke when someone in the crowd threw a brick into the line of guards surrounding the watch tower, hitting a guard in the head and very nearly killing him. Suddenly the uneasy tension suspended between both parties erupted, and the line of guards advanced on the mob.

Knowing it would be a bloodbath if he didn't intervene, Revel called his men back, reining them in like a team of unruly horses. Reluctantly his men came to heel, the respect they had for their Captain overriding their need for retribution. Plus, there were laws in Arendelle that prohibited the city guard in using excessive force to deal with angry crowds. Yes, a brick had been thrown and a guard injured, but that was not justification for the rest of the mob to be punished. The man who threw the brick would eventually be ousted by his fellow man when a reward for his capture was posted in the town square tomorrow.

Still, this left the Captain with a massive amount of paperwork to sift through and incident reports to be drawn up and brought to the House of Justice. It would take days to get everything sorted out, and, on top of an already stressful recruit registration, he had to continue his night sessions with the queen while trying to fit in an adequate amount of sleep each night. It had been an unspoken blessing when Elsa canceled her Wednesday and Thursday class with him, allowing Revel some much needed time filing his reports and sleeping where he could.

By the time Friday rolled around, the Captain's black mood hadn't lifted and didn't look like it was going to budge any time soon. So when his session with Elsa began promptly at ten that evening, Revel had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched Elsa enter the training chamber and shut the door behind her with an irritated sigh.

A half hour into their session, Revel realized this had been a bad idea. Not only was Elsa as irritated as he was, but the Captain was having difficulty controlling his temper and levels of exasperation. The smallest, most insignificant things had the power to set him off, and Elsa's lackluster attempt at target practice was grating his nerves like rubbing a porcupine backwards. He couldn't help but snap at her, and wasn't at all surprised when she snapped right back at him.

"How is it possible you're missing the target entirely? You had this down pat less than two weeks ago!"

"I'm not _blind_, Revel! I can see I'm missing the target," Elsa snarled as yet another of her projectiles swung wide and struck the brick wall beside the round hay target.

"You're not even trying," the Captain muttered, massaging his right temple with his thumb. Elsa was being sloppy. Her stance was loose, her feet not correctly planted, her shoulder barely aligned with the target. It was like the only reason she was with him tonight was to fire ice spikes at his target, and he had more pressing matters to attend to than playing attendant to the queen while she vented her frustration.

"I'm so glad to see you know my magic so thoroughly. Perhaps you'd like to step beside me and fire off a few shots of your own to show me what I'm doing wrong? You being the _master_ and all."

Revel could hear the bite in her voice, but rather than taking a less abrasive approach, he stared coldly at her. "Drawing attention to the fact that I don't share your abilities, and using that as a weapon to antagonize me, makes you look like a fool."

Elsa glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "Seems someone has a bit of bite to them his evening."

"Eerie looking into a mirror, isn't it?" Revel snapped before he could stop and shove his foot into his mouth.

The queen felt her temper flare, hot and dangerous, and fought the urge to slap him. Why was he being like this? She knew he'd had a bad a week, they both had, but tonight Revel was short tempered and broody, pacing and growling like a wolf in a cage. She began to regret her decision to come to session this evening, and toyed with the idea of leaving early in order to give her and the Captain some space, but somehow that felt like retreating, and the last thing Elsa wanted to do was give ground when Revel was being an ass. Call it stubborn determination, call it royal pride, but Elsa wasn't leaving come hell or high water.

"Perhaps we should move on to a different exercise," she suggested turning away from the targets and folding her arms across her chest. Revel stared at her with such open hostility she felt her cheeks reddening but refused to lower her stare as a reminder to the Captain who he was locking eyes with. Finally he lowered his eyes and sighed exasperatedly, leaning his head back against the wall behind him.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Something of your choosing. Apparently, I'm incompetent at target practice tonight, so pick something else. Something you can actually _teach_ me."

"Very well. Your evasive knife fighting is deplorable. I've been meaning to hash out a few lessons for you, but since you're insisting on a change of pace, there's no time like the present," Revel said with all the pleasantness of a grave digger. He detached himself from the wall and walked over to the weapons wrack, eyeing each blade carefully. After a moment of quiet contemplation, he grabbed a long wooden training dagger from the few he had on display, flipping the prop weapon deftly as he strolled to the center of the chamber, and waited for Elsa to join him.

"Anything I should know before we begin?" Elsa asked tersely as she rolled up the sleeves of her gray tunic and secured them behind her elbows.

"I will attack, and you will evade. Use the ground grappling techniques I taught you a few weeks ago, provided you remember them."

"What is it with you and making slights against my memory? When have I _ever_ forgotten _anything_ you've taught me?"

"I—"

"You can't think of a single instance; I know you can't. So who's using their position to bully the other now, hmm? Who looks the fool?"

Revel felt his face flush scarlet and his hands close into fists but hid his growing agitation by lowering himself into a ready stance in front of Elsa; all the while hoping some swift hand-to-hand combat would ease his temper and loosen him up.

"Make yourself ready," the Captain growled.

Elsa seemed to enjoy the fact that she'd beaten Revel at his own game, humorless grin sliding into place as she spread her feet apart and lowered her center of gravity.

"After you, Captain."

Revel moved with swift efficiency, coming in low for a knife strike that would have buried the weapon in the queen's side, had it been live steel and not wood, but Elsa was ready and dodged his attack, spinning behind him and delivering a solid blow to his ribs. The Captain grunted in surprise and nearly dropped his prop knife.

"I didn't say there was contact allowed."

"Oh, I do apologize, Revel. Did that hurt?" Elsa asked sweetly in an overly dramatic voice.

"No physical contact unless we're wearing the proper equipment. You know the rules of my training chamber."

The queen sobered quickly and glowered back at the Captain. "You forget that you're merely _renting_ this chamber from me. Don't forget that."

Revel pretended he hadn't heard the barely veiled threat hidden within Elsa's words and readied for another strike. Again Elsa dodged, but was a little slower this time in her escape from the wooden blade, the tip barely brushing against her right shoulder. She and Revel both noticed this, and the Captain idly wondered if he'd attacked faster than previously thought. Not stopping to dwell on the matter, he launched into another few sets of thrusts and lunges until he was finally able to catch the queen in a lock.

"So you _do_ remember some of the techniques I showed you," Revel remarked without any hint of pride. He was just stating a fact rather than making conversation and couldn't help but notice the brittle edge to his voice.

"Again with the memory quip," Elsa scowled.

"I trust you recall what lock we're in?" Revel smiled mirthlessly.

"The twister-lock; yes, I know what it is."

"And you know that strength wins in the twister-lock."

The two of them were face to face, hands intertwined in a complex lock that could give in either direction depending on who had the greater amount of force. Elsa knew she had no hope of besting Revel in a show of strength, so she had to use other means to gain the upper hand. Without having to do much else than step forward onto the ball of her foot, Elsa quickly iced the area around her and the Captain. Immediately Revel began to lose his footing, and it was all the leverage she needed to twist his arm and send him crashing to the frozen ground.

"Cunning can win the twister-lock as well, Captain," Elsa said standing over him with her hands on her hips. "You should have known better."

Revel didn't remember the red mist filling his vision as he got to his feet or the cold vice wrapping around his stomach. He didn't remember demanding the queen to remove her ice from the chamber or remove herself. He didn't remember the angry words they'd exchanged, words as hurtful as they were dangerous, or how dark Elsa's face had gotten when he screamed for her to leave. What he did remember was that she had taken a swing at him and he'd reacted.

It happened so fast. One second Elsa's fist was half way to his face, her small hand clenched in a tight ball, and the next, Revel had caught her arm, redirected her momentum, and flipped her head over heels. She hit the ground with enough force to crack the ice under her like a rock hitting a mirror, her head bouncing painfully off the ice like a croquet ball. Revel followed through with his throw and crouched over Elsa, their noses barely touching, his wooden prop knife pressed against her stomach.

The force of the throw and the painful landing had driven the breath from the queen, and her back arched against the pain lancing through her shoulder blades and lower back. Light exploded behind her eyes a second later as the back of her head connected with the ice. She feared she'd pass out as black mist began to creep into her vision. Fighting to breathe, Elsa arched again and simultaneously saw a shadow couch over her and felt something sharp pressed against her stomach. Immediately she froze and her eyes flew open. What she found looking back at her made her blood turn to icy sludge in her veins. Those eyes….those clear gray eyes, like a wolf, completely devoid of emotion, stared down at her. Suddenly, she was back in the courtyard feeling the blade slide under her ribs as the world and everyone in it ceased to exist.

At first all she could feel was paralyzing fear. It coiled around her body like a snake, stealing her voice, stealing her breath, stealing any spark of willpower that would jolt her body into action. Those piercing gray eyes engulfed her vision until all she could see was her assassin, and all she could feel was the knife pressed against her stomach. Elsa felt powerless again and at the mercy of a merciless killer.

_Not powerless, _an unfamiliar voice said from within a previously unfelt portion of her mind, _Never powerless. Frost Born are never powerless. _

There was truth to the unfamiliar speaker's words, and Elsa felt a spark of something new and terrible ignite within her. She recognized it as the will to live, the clawing determination to fight to the bitter end even if it meant succumbing to her own death. She would not be another victim. Not ever again. Terror and rage merged into a volcanic substance that set her blood boiling, and her power ripped from her body with the concussive force of a cannon blast.

Revel felt himself leave the icy ground only to reconnect a half second later with a jarring thud that very nearly took his breath away. Disoriented, he attempted to stand but was struck again, this time pushed against the wall behind him with enough force his head snapped back and cracked against the stones. Bleary with pain, he opened his eyes and felt his heart seize with cold fear, all previously felt anger entirely forgotten. Elsa was a hairs breath from him, her cerulean blue eyes leached of color and replaced with glowing white power. Her usually beautiful face was scrunched into an animalistic snarl, lips peeled back as she bared her teeth. Revel tried to swallow and felt resistance against his neck that only tightened as his Adam's apple bobbed. Elsa had her right forearm pressed horizontally into his neck while her left hand…

The Captain flinched as something cold and dangerously sharp pricked the skin of his neck. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that Elsa was holding a wickedly sharp will-ice dagger to his jugular. Revel went still even as Elsa pressed harder on the blade, the tip sinking beneath his skin. He knew what this was, had known the very second he'd seen the pain, terror, and panic flash across her face as she'd hit the ground. He'd seen the same look before in veteran solders returning from campaign, seen how the haunted look in their eyes could spark into a raging inferno the second they saw or heard something that reminded them of combat. The queen was in the full grip of the Warrior's Terror, and it was entirely his doing.

_Oh God, oh my God, what have I done?_

"Elsa," he breathed in a soft voice that barely rose above a whisper. A fresh snarl rolled from her throat, and she pushed her arm harder into his neck, choking him. "Please," Revel gagged and ground his teeth, "Please, I know what you're f-feeling. I…I know this feels right, it feels so good to have control, but what you're seeing is a lie."

Again she pushed hard on his windpipe, and the Captain choked on his next words. Even though he could barely breathe, Revel fought to reach her. "I'm not him. The assassin…Hans… W-Weselton brothers, none of them…here. J-Just me."

Elsa's glowing eyes flashed, and Revel felt a bracing cold spread over his body as if he were wading into a frozen river; the shock of it took his breath away. Ice accumulated on his clothes and quickly spread across his skin, stealing the warmth from his flesh, but he dared not shiver for fear of jarring the knife and successfully ending his life. He needed to talk her down, needed to right his wrong…somehow, but didn't have the first clue of how to do that when she thought of him as the enemy.

_Aren't I though? Isn't this _my_ doing?_

"I've been where you are now," he began slowly. "I know what the fear is making you see, and it all feels so real. What you're doing right now feels so right, but you couldn't be more wrong. Please, Elsa, _please_ see me. Please recognize me. Don't end this here because of my stupidity. Don't become a killer. Believe me, it's a stain that will never come out."

Revel watched Elsa's body begin to tense all over, the hand holding the dagger of will-ice to his throat beginning to quiver. She was fighting with herself, waging an unseen war within the recesses of her mind, but if she fought the fear it would only grow. Surely she knew that better than anyone.

"No no no, don't fight the fear. Bend with it. It's all in your mind, and you have the power to control it. You've always had the power."

Revel felt the blade tip and her forearm leave his neck as she took a tentative step back. For half a second he allowed himself to breathe before moving into action. Slowly, carefully, he reached for the dagger that was very nearly hanging limp from Elsa's hand. He was fairly sure the episode was finished, could see reason slowly replacing the terror and rage warring in her eyes, but it had been a mistake to touch her. Suddenly, the queen's hand tightened into a death grip around the hilt of the blade, and she brought it down in a swift arch. Revel felt cold fire lance across the skin of his upper arm as the wickedly sharp blade bit deep, spattering blood across the floor. Had Elsa been standing a few feet closer, the Captain had no trouble believing she'd have carved a wide red slash in the side of his neck. As it was, the wound was deep, but nothing serious since it didn't seem to have hit the bone, so he wasn't concerned about his arm. Revel only had eyes for Elsa as she backed away, bloody weapon pointed at him in a warning to stay back. She was breathing heavily now.

"Please," Revel pleaded holding his hands palm out to show he meant her no harm, "don't run from me. Don't let the fear and anger swallow you. Don't go where I can't follow."

She was shaking violently, every inch of her body quivering like a tree caught in a strong wind, hyperventilation increasing. Suddenly the dagger fell from her fingers, and Elsa gripped the sides of her head as if at any moment her skull would explode. Different emotions flashed across her face like lightning, there one second and gone the next. Staggering back, she ground her teeth against the pain, against the screaming in her head, and the room's temperature took a dangerous dive. The once cheery orange flame torches circling the room shrank down to blue whispers of heat, each only throwing off enough light to elongate the creeping, undulating shadows overtaking the room. Revel saw his breath turn to vapor in front of him and watched in transfixed wonder as toothy shards of ice rose from the floor around the queen. In the rafters above, more ice formed, translucent fingers slowly growing into thick stalactites.

"Bend, Elsa. Let it pass through you. Let it go."

Finally, it seemed the war raging inside her head finally hit a cataclysmic peak. She suddenly whipped around towards Revel and let a godless roar tear from her throat, and for the first time in years the Captain felt true fear seize his heart like a vice. This wasn't the queen standing in the middle of the training chamber, this wasn't Elsa. Her hands were aglow with blue fractures of will-ice that quickly began climbing her arms like jagged vines; her eyes glowed so brightly with primal magic they could have been ship's beacons. There was a lethality to her eyes that lent her an inhuman quality, a promise of pain and death for whomever was unfortunate enough to approach her in this state. Revel pinned himself to the wall, fearing if he shifted a single muscle he'd discover an ice lance protruding from his chest.

Her roar lingered far longer than should have been humanly possible, but once it began to fade so did the lethal light in her eyes and the glowing magic climbing her arms. Energy spent, Elsa swayed unsteadily as the adrenalin left her body like a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Slowly the torches returned to their normal burn, and the room once again filled with soft orange light, but still Revel didn't dare move even as he felt drop after warm drop of blood drip from his slack left hand. With a great amount of effort, the queen lifted her confused gaze towards the Captain, held it for a brief span of heartbeats, before her eyes rolled shut and she crumpled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

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><p>"You don't have to do this alone anymore. Because for the first time in forever, I'll be right—"<p>

"I can't!" Elsa screamed at her sister's reflection in the ice wall in front of her, the back-build of her magic ripping from her body with a thunderous clap. All she wanted was to know that her sister was safe and for her to leave her in peace, but the Princess was anything but safe while in the presence of the Snow Queen, the monster who had buried Arendelle in nearly twenty feet of ice and snow. As always, Anna had come knocking at her door even in Elsa's exile at the top of North Mountain. She was forever knocking, forever trying to get her sister to open up, forever trying to search out and find the love the two of them had once shared as children before the accident. It was infuriating, it was terrifying, but it was everything the queen needed, yet couldn't have. She was death while Anna was life, but all Elsa wanted, all she craved, was the love of her sister, her last living family member.

The queen sucked in breath after ragged breath, unsure of exactly what had just happened. The ice hall echoed her scream a thousand times over, her castle snapping and popping as her magic coursed through it. Remarkably, she felt better after her sudden power flux, but something was amiss. She could feel it like a warm prickle on the back of her neck. Elsa's ice palace seemed to realize something was wrong as well, the ice echoing her hesitant curiosity by turning shades of red and yellow. When she heard the pained gasp from behind her, she felt her world tip dangerously to one side. When she turned around to face her sister her world began to shatter.

"E-Elsa?" Anna gasped staring disbelievingly at the twelve inch piece of ice sticking out of her chest. Blood rolled down the smooth shaft and dripped steadily onto the floor, a sizable puddle of crimson quickly starting to form in front of Anna's knees.

"No! Anna!" Elsa screamed and tried to run to her sister's side, but ice held her in place, locking her feet down. The more she struggled the tighter it gripped her, and the creeping vines of cold slowly climbed her legs.

"W-Why?" Anna stammered looking up at her sister, her once rosy face devoid of color. Blood dribbled out of the corners of her mouth and streaked down her pale neck in lines. She tried to remove the spike with shaking hands but only managed a pained whimper.

"Don't pull it out!" Elsa fought against the ice holding her and went down painfully into her hands and knees, reaching for her sister. "Anna, please. _Please_! You'll die!"

Grinding her bloody teeth, Anna gave the spike one hard yank, and it slid free with a grotesque sucking sound that made Elsa's stomach roll and bile race into the back of her throat. Gently, the strawberry blonde touched the gaping hole in her chest, mittened hands coming away soaked in blood. By now the front of her dress was a gory mess, and she was swaying unsteadily, eyes beginning to cloud.

"I…I told them….y-you'd never…hurt me…" Anna mumbled, slumping forward, the last of her life trickling out of the wound in her heart. She hit the floor with an ugly thud, the ice shard skittering across the glass smooth surface and stopping just in front of the queen. Elsa stared down at the projectile, at the ice that had killed her sister, slick with fresh blood, and screamed until her lungs burned. She screamed and thrashed, but, no matter how hard she fought, her ice wouldn't let her go, determined on holding her in place so that she could see what she'd done.

_Your sister is dead because of you!_ Hans' voice boomed throughout the chamber. _Dead because she trusted you weren't a monster!_

"Anna! _Anna, no_!" Elsa finally fought her way free but just as she was about to drop next to her sister, the floor opened up under her and she fell for eternity, blackness swallowing any shred of light.

She woke sitting bolt upright in bed screaming Anna's name, her sheets tangled around her like groping arms trying to pull her back towards the bed. Sheer panic assaulted her from every direction, and, before the queen realized what was happening, she cut her way free of her bed, ice dagger clutched in trembling hands. Elsa hit the floor with a jarring thud and heard ice crunch under her like egg shells cracking. Startled, she looked around and realized with a wave of fresh terror that her room was entirely iced over, every inch of open space covered in a layer of glistening smooth winter. A thousands questions sprang into the turmoil of her mind. Where was Revel? How had she gotten back into her room? Why wasn't she back in the training chamber, and why did it feel like at any moment someone was going to jump out of the shadows and stab her? Something hit her door, and the queen jerked around, more ice spreading under her in bursts of glowing blue power.

"Elsa?" Anna called, her voice drenched in concern.

_No no no, please Anna, go away. Something's wrong, please don't get near me! Please!_

She heard the door handle jiggle and her heart flew into her throat. Had she locked the door? If not, did she have time to bar her sister's entrance?

"Elsa what's going on? Why can't I get in?"

"Go away," Elsa choked stumbling to her feet, arms squeezing her stomach and teeth gritted against the agonizing pull of her magic as it fought to combat the terror swirling inside her.

"Let me in, Elsa!" Anna demanded, and this time it sounded like she'd rammed the door with her shoulder, the ice holding it in place starting to fracture.

"Go away, Anna! Please!"

If the queen thought her frantic command would somehow sway her sister into leaving like it had done in the past, she was sorely mistaken. Anna doubled her efforts to get into her sister's room, and, after a few more shoulder shoves, was able to push the heavily iced door open enough to squeeze in through a small gap. The cold hit her like a physical blow and she gasped, staring wide eyed at Elsa's room. The last time her sister had frozen her room had been during the assassination attempt a year ago, and that had only been sheets of ice. This time things were different. It looked as if someone had thrown javelins into the wall opposite her bed, long flutes of glass-smooth ice sticking out of the wall in clusters of three. Fangs of crystalline wonder hung from the ceiling and rose from the floor like the teeth of a massive ice dragon preparing to swallow the room whole, and standing hunched in the center of it, eyes so wide with gripping fear they almost glowed, was the queen.

"Elsa, are you—"

"Stay away," Elsa hissed backing away as her sister advanced, sparks of blue ice echoing her footfalls. Anna immediately stopped and raised her hands.

"Hey, hey calm down, it's only me. What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Please just…just go back to your room, Anna."

"Not going to happen," the young princess said gently and chanced a step forward. Elsa flinched back again, and it was when she moved into the light of her frosted triangular window that Anna could see she was crying. "What happened?"

Elsa didn't know whether to bolt for the door or take her chances jumping out her window, but all she knew was that she couldn't be in the same room as Anna right now. She could feel her fears manifesting into physical ice all around her and knew her sister was in grave danger the longer she remained close, but Anna was determined not to leave. Breath coming in heaving gulps, the queen tried to struggle through the crippling waves of terror as best she could but it was too much…everything was too much…she was losing the fight…she was going to…

Sudden warmth shocked her out of her downward spiral like a slap to the face. Startled, she looked down and realized she was on her knees and her sister's arms were wrapped around her, swollen belly pressing against Elsa's side. Gripping panic washed over her as she realized how close Anna was, but her struggling got her nowhere as the princess tightened her grip, refusing to let go.

"Anna, please, _please!_ You can't stay here, you can be around me. I'm going to—"

"No, you need to calm down," the princess snapped and squeezed tighter. Then more gently she said, "I've got you. You're safe."

Anna began rocking back and forth, rubbing her sister's frigid back with her free hand. If she noticed that her sister was dressed in a gray fencers top, leather vest, and black pants when she should have been in her nightgown, she said nothing about it. Anna could feel Elsa tensing like a coiled spring, every muscle as rigid as a plank of wood, but she refused to let go.

"Anna p-please…"

"I'm not going anywhere, Elsa, and I never will. Please calm down, and tell me what happened."

The queen choked after a long silence "I killed you." Hot tears welled in her eyes. "Oh God, oh God, I watched you die…there was so much blood…I-I watched you die!"

"No you didn't, I'm right here. Listen." Anna gently took Elsa's head in her hands and pressed it against her chest right over her heart. Sure enough, she could hear the rhythmic beating of her sister's heart, and never had a sound been more needed or treasured.

Suddenly Elsa couldn't hold herself up anymore and collapsed into her sister, and heavy sobs tore from her throat. Hands gripping Anna's nightdress with an almost desperate need, she buried her face in her sister's chest and cried until her lungs burned. The two sat on the frozen floor for what seemed like hours, younger sister cradling older sister as the queen bled the fear and anger and sorrow from her body through her cries. Eventually she calmed enough to sit up on her own, body shaking with the effort. She realized her room was still encased in ice and dispersed her magic with the wave of her hand, and the room quickly returned to a more livable temperature.

"It was just a nightmare," Anna reassured her as she helped her sister back into bed. The sheets were a little damp, so she carefully waddled over to the wardrobe and pulled out two sets of blankets. Returning to the bed, Elsa allowed her sister to throw one over her shoulders while Anna wrapped herself in the second.

"It was so real," Elsa hiccupped, pulling her blanket tight around her shoulders more for comfort than warmth.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"We….we were back in the ice palace during the Great Freeze. You were trying to get me to come back with you when I….w-when I…"

"It's okay, it's okay, I understand," Anna shushed her quietly and cradled her sister against her chest, shushing her softly as she began to cry again.

It wasn't all that uncommon for Elsa to have nightmares. As children, especially after her and her sister's separation, the queen had suffered from night terrors loud enough to wake the castle staff. Always, the late King and Queen had bustled into her room while Kia or Gerda herded Anna back to hers, but after their parents death the terrors had become worse and more frequent. With no one to comfort her, Elsa had dealt with the terrors alone. After the Great Freeze, however, Anna figured out what was going on and stepped in to help. As their sisterly relationship mended, the terrors slowly faded away until Elsa barely had one or two a year, but tonight was by far the worst Anna had seen.

For a long while the sisters sat in silence holding one another until Anna was sure Elsa had fallen asleep against her. Not wanting to disturb her rest, and with Kristoff still in the mountains cooling off, Anna decided to stay, determined to watch over her older sister until she could no longer keep her eyes open. The princess lasted another hour of dutiful watchfulness before drifting off.

It was the knock at the door hours later that woke Anna, and she struggled to push herself up with her elbow, looking around room blearily. Last night came back to her slowly, and Anna looked down at her still sleeping sister and smiled, happy Elsa was still resting peacefully. The knock sounded again, and the princess winced as her sister stirred with a pitiful moan and rolled away from the sound. Sliding out of bed, Anna padded over to the door and cracked it open.

"Good morning, Maj— oh, Princess Anna. I didn't expect to see you."

"Good morning, Kai," Anna said barely stifling a yawn and scooting through the crack in the door, swollen belly scraping against the wood.

"Is everything all right?" Kai asked seeing the tired look on the princess's face as she wiped the sleep from her eyes.

"My sister had a…rough night last night. Please, clear her schedule today, and inform any visitors that the Queen as taken ill."

"Should I call for the Physician, Highness?"

"No, I think rest is all she needs."

"Of course. I'll send Gerda up in a few hours with tea and a small breakfast."

Anna smiled and thanked the manservant, but as she was about to go, Kai stopped her and handed her an envelope.

"This came for Her Majesty this morning from Captain Revel."

"I'll make sure she gets it," Anna said taking the envelope without a second thought and walking back into the room. Elsa was still asleep, so Anna set the letter atop a large leather tome next to the queen's bed. She thought about crawling back into bed with her sister, but doubted she'd find any sleep now that she'd been up and moving around. Not wanting to disturb Elsa, Anna made a decision and quietly left the room. She headed for the nursery after dressing in plain clothes, determined to get something productive done before Kristoff returned, and to work out her apology to him.

Elsa woke groggy and sore, her back a nest of knotted muscles and bruises. Gingerly, she sat up in bed and looked around, unsure of what time it was or where Anna had gotten off to. The clock on her dresser told her it was well past eleven in the morning, and she groaned, hands scrubbing the last dregs of sleep from her face. Someone knocked at her door, and she bid them enter, too drained to swing her legs over the edge of her bed and answer it herself. Gerda pushed open the door quietly and wheeled in a small cart that held a tray of food and a kettle of tea.

"Good morning, Majesty. How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," Elsa found herself confessing before she could stop herself.

"Your sister informed us you had a rough night last night, so I thought a little food and some tea would help. She also canceled your appointments this afternoon so that you could rest."

Elsa smiled wanly. Leave it to Anna to reverse the roles and become the doting big sister when Elsa was feeling poorly. "Thank you, Gerda."

"Of course, Majesty. Should I leave the tray and kettle next to your bed?"

"That would be fine, thank you."

Gerda arranged the plate of food and kettle on a small table in front of Elsa's fireplace before withdrawing from the room with a nod and a smile.

Not exactly hungry, and not sure how steady her hands were, Elsa ignored the food, instead propping herself up with her pillows and staring blankly out her widow with a gusty exhale. Things had gone so wrong last night she feared there would be no mending her relationship with the Captain. They had said hurtful things to one another, had both overstepped boundaries, but none more than Elsa. She shivered at the horrible memories that resurfaced in fragmented pieces, snippets of different moments flashing behind her closed eyes like randomly flipping through the pages of a book. As hazy as most of the memories were, Elsa could recall one that put such a weight of shame and guilt in her stomach she feared she'd fall through the floor. Revel, green eyes consumed with seizing terror, staring back at her with a face so pale he looked like a ghost. It was the same fear she had seen on the day of her coronation when she'd run into the courtyard and accidentally frozen the fountains; the town's people backing away from the monster their queen had revealed herself to be.

Elsa suppressed another wave of shivers and drew her knees to her chest. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? Why hadn't she listened to her gut and left the training chamber before her anger and stress had gotten the better of her? Fighting to keep her composure, the queen slid out of bed and pulled off her training outfit from last night. She threw on a warm robe and wobbled back to bed, the backs of her legs sore and stiff. Once comfortably tucked in, Elsa decided some light reading would be just the thing to occupy her mind and reached for the leather tome next to her bed. Hardly noticing the envelope sitting atop the book, the queen opened to her bookmarked page and began reading. It wasn't until she'd finished the most current chapter that Elsa glanced at the envelope and realized with a thrill of anxiety who it was from.

With shaking hands, she popped the wax seal, withdrew the carefully folded letter, and began to read.

_Majesty:_

_Due to the events of last evening, I have decided that it would be in our best interests if we cease our sessions together until a later, undetermined period of time. Regretfully, it appears I have overstepped my boundaries with you, an act that both shames and angers me; therefore I feel it would be prudent for us to withdraw from one another._

_Forever your servant,_

_CRH_

Elsa had to read the letter two more times before the reality of what had been written, in black ink on white parchment, crashed into her like a cannon ball. The trembling in her hands grew so bad she dropped the letter and fought to inhale, lungs desperate for the air she'd denied them as she processed the letter. At first there was denial, but that was quickly overridden by such a heavy wave of guilt and shame Elsa thought she was going to vomit.

_Well done, Snow Queen, _a familiar and unwelcome voice sneered as Elsa hunched forward and hugged herself. _You've pushed away perhaps the only friend you've ever had aside from your sister. He fears you now, fears you like the rest of your kingdom secretly fears you. It was just a matter of time before you showed him just how dangerous you really are._

Hand over her mouth, Elsa was unable to choke back the sob that tore from her as tears suddenly sprang into her eyes. No, it wasn't true; it _couldn't_ be true. She wasn't a monster, not anymore. Last night had been a mistake…it had been an accident.

_Oh yes, you _'accidentally'_ attempted to kill him by slitting his throat with an ice dagger._

Suddenly, she remembered with such awesome clarity the blood on her knife, the blood pouring down Revel's arm from the deep gash she'd left there, and barely made it to her chamber pot before she vomited. Once her stomach was empty, Elsa staggered to her vanity and the basin of water left for her there. Not bothering to cup the water with her hands, the queen submerged her head in the basin for a few seconds before pulling back with a gasp, letting the water roll down her back and soak the front of her robe. Cool relief soothed her nauseous stomach and took some of her headache away, but it didn't last long. The memories of last night just wouldn't stay away no matter how hard she fought them, and along with the memories came her unwanted inner voice.

_What kind of Queen would attack a friend? Would you have stopped with Revel, or would there have been…other casualties?_

"Please stop," Elsa whispered, fists pressed to either side of her head.

_The truth is hard to hear, Snow Queen, and even harder to swallow. When will you learn you're not deserving of love because who could ever learn to love a beast?_

The taunting voice subsided then, melting back into Elsa's subconscious like fog burned away by the sun, but the damage it had meant to do was already done. Staring at the book she'd pulled into her lap without noticing, Elsa felt her tears returning as she read aloud a few familiar lines that had caught her attention earlier and now cut her deeper than any knife.

"Mon coeur est aimable, mais je suis un monster," she whispered in fluent French, her fingers sliding down the page. Teardrops rolled off the tip of her nose and stained the paper as she bowed her head. "My heart is kind, but I am a monster."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** So here it is, chapter 12. Good god almighty, this took some effort to write. I'm going to remind all my readers here and now that this IS a mature story, and that from this point on we'll be seeing a lot more mature things (i.e. an increase of coarse language, sex, and violence). If you have a problem reading those things turn back now because I'm not going to change my writing because a few people are uncomfortable with a mature label. Also, Protogon, I was unable to find you, so either PM me here or find me on tumblr. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I'd love to read your reviews here on FFN and talk you all on my tumblr page.

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><p>"Kristoff, I'm worried," Anna said, wringing her hands as she paced the length of the wide carpet in the center of their room. "I'm really, <em>really<em> worried. Something's not right with her; I can _feel_ it."

"I know; I see it too," the mountain man mumbled from where he sat on the edge of the bed, lacing and unlacing his fingers.

It had been a month since he'd returned to the palace after his short hiatus with his troll family and two days after Elsa's first nightmare. He'd expected to return to the princess' erratic mood swings, volcanic temper, and cold shoulders, but Anna had all but thrown herself into his arms and apologized profusely for her behavior, stumbling over her words as she rushed to get them out. Unable to stay mad at the woman he loved, and shocked by her sincerity, Kristoff had crumbled and pulled her into a crushing hug, mumbling his own apologies into the crook of her neck. They spent the rest of the afternoon reacquainting themselves with one another, and it was only when they lay snuggled together on the couch in front of the fire that Anna confided in her husband about what had been going on with the queen.

At first, Kristoff wrote it off as stress. From what Anna had described, the week he'd been away had been a page straight out of hell; one disaster after another cumulating into the night Elsa had iced her room. Though the queen rarely had nightmares anymore, he surmised it was the stress from her duties manifesting in a less than pleasant manner, but Anna wasn't convinced. Kristoff reassured her everything was fine, but the changes they began seeing in the following days definitely made him second guess his previous assessment.

It began with silence. Elsa was as a naturally pensive person, and, if someone was unaccustomed to being around a quiet soul, it made the queen come across as brooding and unsociable. Unlike her sister, she spent a majority of her time in her head, only engaging in conversation when prompted or when it interested her. It was something the castle staff had come to recognize and look beyond. Over the past month, however, Elsa seemed to have completely shut down, retreating into herself and refusing to speak with anyone unless she absolutely had to. Even Anna couldn't get her to say more than a few words, and when she did it seemed forced.

Disinterest came next, and Elsa lost the drive to do things that were once enjoyable. Chess games with her sister, strolling through town with Kristoff, building snowmen in hidden places around the kingdom for the children to hunt and find; anything that once put a smile on the queen's face fell by the wayside; even reading seemed to be beyond her reach. Elsa would retreat to the library only to stare vacantly out the window or stand statuesque at the balcony until someone came and fetched her. One day she sat in the same spot from sunrise to sunset, not rising to eat, drink, or relieve herself, simply staring out at the fjord with dull, sad eyes. That had been the moment Anna began to worry. She'd never seen her sister act like this before, even during their years of separation. It was like Elsa had become half a person, her liveliness and spark removed by some unseen force that left the husk behind to wander aimlessly. It scared the princess, but not as much as what began happening at night.

As the weeks wore on, silence hung over the daylight hours like a black shroud, and every man and woman within its walls felt its weight. At night, however, screams echoed through the halls. The nightmares had returned with a vengeance, and, more than once, Anna had stumbled into her sister's icy room and found her huddled in a corner, her once dull eyes bright with fear and exhaustion. In the beginning, Anna had tried to stay by Elsa's side, to comfort her and lull her back to sleep while trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the terrors: why they were back and what could be causing them. Nothing in Elsa's life had changed, personal or professional, as far as Anna could see, but the night terrors continued to plague the queen on an almost nightly basis.

After the first week, Elsa could see the strain it was putting on her heavily pregnant sister. Anna wasn't sleeping any more than she was, padding from her room to her sister's when the screams jolted her awake, and sitting with Elsa until she calmed. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, and the next time Anna was woken by an unearthly shriek and groggily tottered to her sister's room she discovered her sister's door bared and locked. No matter how loudly she pounded on the wood or hit the door it with her shoulder, Elsa wouldn't let her in. Eventually, Kristoff had to haul his wife away while she screamed at the locked door, angry and hurt that she was being shut out.

_See? You can't even keep your promise to your sister, _the familiar voice taunted Elsa from the darkness as she huddled in the corner farthest from the door. _You're a liar as much as you're a monster, and you're pushing her away just like you did when you were young. Old habits I guess. Wonder what she'll think of you come morning._

Needless to say, Anna had been furious. At first she tried confronting her sister first thing in the morning, right as the queen emerged from her chambers.

"You lied to me!" Anna yelled, pointing dangerously at her sister. "You broke your promise, and you lied to me! You said there would never be any locked doors between us!"

Elsa turned slowly and stared at her sister with an emotionless expression. At first it was difficult to concentrate on the irate strawberry blond, her eyes sliding in and out of focus due to sleep depravity, but eventually the fuzzy halo surrounding her sister sharpened.

"You're right. I did," the queen admitted quietly, folding her hands in front of her skirt.

"Where do you get off barring your door? What if something had happened to you and I couldn't get to you because _someone_ had the bright idea of sliding a piece of furniture in front of the damn door?!"

_Would they really mourn you if you were murdered? _the voice said, and Elsa physically flinched.

"You needed sleep," the queen explained, eyes downcast.

"And I'd get sleep if someone wasn't shrieking like a banshee at three in the morning!" Anna realized what she'd said a half second too late and clapped her hands over her mouth. That wasn't meant to have come out. She watched helplessly as her sister's face fell, her cerulean blue eyes dulled with guilt and sadness.

"No, wait, I didn't mean that. I'm sorry…I just…Elsa I'm really—"

"No, it's alright. I'll try not to wake you again."

The deadness in her sister's voice unnerved her, and Anna reached out to take her sister's arm only to snatch her hand back, hissing. Elsa was _cold_. Yes, the queen was normally a few degrees cooler than most people, but she was so cold it was almost painful to touch her even through the layers of fabric covering her arms.

Layers of fabric…

It was then that Anna realized Elsa was completely covered from neck to ankle in fabric, and it was a warning sign the princess should have recognized immediately. Since the Great Freeze, her sister had become more daring with her choices of clothing, wearing lower cut dresses and thinner fabric. It was an outward showing of how comfortable she felt with herself internally, but now she was covering up again. Thank God there weren't any gloves on her hands, but Anna could see how Elsa pulled away from her just like she used to do during her years of isolation. It was such a startling and ominous revelation; Anna felt her eyes starting to tear.

Elsa saw the pained look on Anna's face when she touched her, saw the tears, and felt another brick of shame added to the weight already pressing down on her shoulders.

_She can't even stand to touch you anymore,_ the taunting voice cackled in the back of her head.

"I'm sorry," the queen choked before turning and walking quickly away, tears brimming in her eyes, leaving a scared and perplexed Anna behind.

After the confrontation with her sister, Elsa stopped dinning with Kristoff and Anna, stopped eating altogether. Plates of food were left untouched or barely nibble on, and the toll it took on the queen's body, coupled with her insomnia, was instantly noticeable. She was losing weight rapidly, her clothes hanging off her frame when they use to huge her curves. Her face became sallow, her eyes sunken in, and that had been the point Anna began to worry in earnest. Locking herself in her room at night was one thing; it was irksome and hurtful, especially after all the progress the sisters had made over the years, but seeing Elsa begin to slowly waist away put such a clawing fear in the princess's chest she felt like she couldn't draw adequate breath.

"Gerda's told me she's not eating anymore. Not even nibbling, and she's loosing so much weight."

"Did you talk to the Physician?" Kristoff asked, still leaning forward, elbows planted on the tops of his legs.

"She's just as baffled as the rest of us. Brynja says there's nothing physically wrong with my sister, but she fears it might not be a physical sickness."

"You mean it might be in her head?"

"Or her soul," Anna whispered with a shiver.

Soul sickness was something Anna had learned about during her studies as a child. For some strange reason, human illness and medical abnormalities had intrigued her when she was younger, and soul sickness, though not a physical malady, had caught her eye early on. It was a mysterious ailment that could strike healthy individuals like lighting out of the blue sky, and with just as much devastating force. Like most illnesses, it was thought that an individual who was soul sick had an imbalance in their body's humors, the tides that ebbed and flowed within the blood and bodily fluids. There was no known antidote or cure for soul sickness, only experimental medicines like herbal remedies and bloodletting. If left untreated it could be fatal. Anna had heard stories of soldier wives or people who experienced great loss contracting the illness and slowly wasting away or throwing themselves off of cliffs. That's what made her shiver when thinking about being soul sick; the fact that her sister could sink so low so fast she'd do something to harm herself.

"How do you heal a soul?" Anna sighed, sitting next to Kristoff and putting a gentle hand on her swollen stomach.

"Maybe Pabbie would know."

"I don't know if I can leave here knowing how low Elsa has fallen. What if something…" She couldn't even finish her sentence let alone her thought. Anna didn't know what she'd do if she found out something had happened to her sister, or she'd done something to herself, and the princess could have prevented it by simply being close. No, she wouldn't let her mind wander into those dark waters.

"We can give it a few more days and see if this clears up, but, Anna, it's been a month. If it doesn't clear up, we need to find help, and Pabbie is the only person, well not a person, but you know what I mean, who might know a way to cure Elsa of soul sickness."

"Ok, a few more days," Anna agreed and rested her head against his shoulder, sighing deeply. "I just have this horrible feeling I caused this."

Kristoff turned towards her and gently took his wife's face in his hands. "Anna, this isn't your fault."

"But I—"

"No, no buts. Yes, you've been a little difficult these past few weeks, but what's happening to Elsa isn't because of you. There's something more going on that we're just not seeing, but it has nothing to do with you. I promise."

Anna sniffed back her tears and wrapped her arms around Kristoff's muscular waist, squeezing tightly. Maybe he was right. Maybe this didn't have anything to do with her, but that didn't mean she didn't feel any less helpless. Three days later, when there was no visible change in the queen, Anna and Kristoff packed a sled and headed into the mountains to seek out Pabbie.

* * *

><p>Elsa, watching her sister and brother-in-law ride through the courtyard and out the castle gates from her bedroom window, rested her forehead against the cool glass and wrapped her arms around her waist. She felt the telltale prickling at the base of her skull as the familiar voice returned, her fingertips beginning to tingle and spark with blue magic.<p>

_They're leaving to get away from you. Just like you knew they would. It was only a matter of time before your isolation began again, Snow Queen, you had to realize that._

Isolation, was that what she'd doomed herself to? Was this castle going to be her cage and her jail keeper the taunting voice of her inner demons? Numb from the neck down, Elsa sighed and moved away from the window. There were no other appointments that day meaning she had the afternoon and evening free, and that was just fine. Feeling confined and a little claustrophobic, the queen decided to take a walk through the castle. Maybe she'd walk the parapets and watch the fjord for a while…maybe she'd see just how high the walls rose above the rocky shore in certain places…maybe she'd just let herself slip—

Elsa jerked and shook her head as if coming out of a dream, her dark thoughts retreating. No, she wouldn't allow herself to think like that, wouldn't let herself imagine for even a moment what it would be like taking her own life. If not for the sake of her soul, which, despite her bleak views of religion, she still worried about, it was for Anna's sake. As consumed by darkness as she felt, the queen couldn't stomach picturing her sister having to bury another family member who had died too soon. For once, the taunting voice remained quiet as she emerged from her room and walked to her study. Appointments or not, she had things to do, and, if keeping her hands busy helped keep her dark thoughts at bay, she'd work until she couldn't lift her quill pen or until she passed out.

The thought of sleep sent a shiver down her spine and woke ice in her hands. Even during her waking hours, she could recall the graphic and horrific images of her nightmares. Some nights she dreamed of her ice castle and the death of her sister by her hands. Sometimes the roles were reversed, and it was Elsa dying in a spectacular spray of blood, either killed by Hans' sword on the fjord or by the assassin's blade in the courtyard. Strangely, the dreams where she was the only victim she could stomach. They were no less terrifying, but they were manageable because there was always a point where the dream ended at her own death. It was the dreams where she could hear her sister in pain, pleading for Elsa to help her, and the queen rushing to find her only to arrive to late that brought the queen screaming out of sleep.

It was safe to say that when Elsa retired to her room well past midnight, exhausted beyond belief, she fought to remain awake for as long as possible, but it was a losing battle. She didn't even remember changing out of her dress, didn't remember making it to her bed, before reality ceased to exist as the dream world quickly dragged her under. Her surroundings suddenly changing to an all too familiar scene.

"I'm not him. It's…me. R-Remember."

She heard Revel choke, his voice laden with pain. Elsa opened her eyes and was startled by just how close she was to the Captain, their noses very nearly touching. She could see every pore, every hair follicle along the rim of his hairline and in his short beard. She could smell the sharp tang of sweat and the musty warmth of his breath. But what stunned her more than her nearness was the look of abject terror in his bright green eyes. His body, pressed firmly against the wall behind him, was stiff with fear, paralyzed from the neck down. The queen tried to pull away from him but found her body locked in place, will-ice dagger still pressed to his jugular.

"Why are we here again, Frost Born," an unfamiliar, feminine voice asked from somewhere behind Elsa. It didn't sound anything like the voice that taunted her relentlessly. There was an unseen power to the speaker's words that sent a chill down the queen's spine.

She tried to turn, tried to fight the paralysis of her body, but it was to no avail. The only thing she could move on her own were her eyes.

_He insulted you. _The familiar taunting voice that was always speaking into her ear said with malicious glee._ He bruised you. He hurt you, so why do you hesitate?_

"No," Elsa said as she strained against the hold on her body. "No, no it was an accident. We were both angry, and I struck first. He was just defending himself!"

_As you are doing now, _the taunting voice said.

"This is murder, not defense!" Elsa yelled in panic as she felt her left arm descend fractionally, her will-ice dagger puncturing the skin of Revel's neck with agonizing slowness.

The Captain gasped raggedly and tried to pull away from the pain, tried to pull away from her, but he was as powerless to stop what was happening as the queen. Realizing what was about to happen, Elsa fought against her bonds and tried opening her hand to drop the dagger, but her fingers were frozen in place around the handle.

"No, no, no, _no_! This isn't right! He's not trying to hurt me!"

_But you wanted to hurt him. You wanted to kill him, make him bleed, make him suffer for hurting you. Do it, Elsa. Do what you know you want to do._

Revel grimaced, blood streaking down his neck in bright lines of crimson. By now the tip of the dagger was under his skin, and he gnashed his teeth against the pain.

"Enough!" Elsa heard the unfamiliar voice boom in her ears, and she flinched. "Enough of this self-pity. You would torment yourself over a reflex action? At least you stopped in time! Stop listening to your demon of fear, Frost Born, and pull yourself out of this dream!"

Elsa saw something shift out of the corner of her eye and tried to look in the direction of the shadow that had caught her attention. She thought she saw a wisp of snow white hair, thought she heard the rustle of fabric and the clinking of chainmail.

"Please," Elsa said to whoever was in the chamber with her, every muscle in her body straining. "Please, make it stop."

"This isn't my doing, Frost Born," the female voice said softly, "this is your dream. Stop it yourself_._"

"You keep calling me that, but I don't know what it means!" Elsa jumped when Revel gasped again, more blood welling from the wound in his neck. "Tell me how I make this stop!"

"I just told you I can't do anything. Only you can."

Elsa strained every muscle in her body trying to pull away, but the more she thrashed the deeper the knife went. Bracing herself against the superhuman pull on her body, she pitched to the side and was rewarded when the paralysis seemed to break, and she lost her balance and toppled over. It didn't occur to her until she'd rolled to a stop that she managed to drag Revel down with her. Before Elsa could blink, she was straddling him and in her hands the ice dagger had been replaced with an arrow hovering a hairs breath above his chest. Her paralysis returned like a bent stick snapping back in place.

"Please!" she sobbed, tears running down her face. She fought and screamed trying to keep the weapon away, pleaded for Revel's forgiveness over and over again even as the arrowhead sank into his chest. The Captain's eyes went wide with pain and fear, and he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out save for a quivering gasp.

"Revel! Oh God, please, please, I'm sorry. I can't stop. I can't pull it back!"

_Why do you wail over the man who hurt you_? _Why do you mourn him? He would have died by your hands anyway,_ the taunting voice whispered in her ear.

"He's my friend!" Elsa screamed in response. "_I'm_ the threat! He was just defending himself."

"We are all threats to one another," the unfamiliar voice said as if trying to speak over the taunting voice in Elsa's ear.

"Make it stop!"

"Stop it yourself. You have the power."

"I can't!"

"Just let go of the dream."

"If I let go, he'll die! I don't want to be a murderer!"

"You're not a murderer if this is a dream," the unfamiliar voice said so close to the queen's head she jumped.

Elsa stared down at Revel, her eyes welling with tears. He was struggling to draw breath, blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth and staining his teeth. Suddenly the arrow in Elsa's had plunged into the Captain's chest with a sick sucking sound. He jerked once before his eyes clouded and he lay still.

"_No!_" the queen shrieked as she watched life leave his once bright green eyes. Her sobs shook her frame as she lay atop his chest, tears mixing with the growing blood stain slowly seeping into the fabric of his shirt.

Suddenly, something in the dream shifted. Elsa couldn't put into words what she'd felt, but everything around her began to bleed like water thrown on fresh ink. Colors ran together, shapes smashed into unidentifiable masses as the room began to spin out of focus. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, Elsa found herself standing in the middle of her personal chambers. The darkness around her was almost palpable, and she turned in a slow, hesitant circle in order to get her barrings.

_Am I still asleep? _She thought looking around at her familiar quarters. It didn't appear anything was out of place, her room just the way she had left it that morning, so maybe she'd fallen asleep standing up? It had been known to happen to people, though she had never experienced it first hand until now. Sighing with relief, the queen turned towards her vanity, hopeful a few splashes of water would shake the last dregs of sleep from her, and froze when she caught sight of her tall mirror. Two glowing white eyes stared back at her from the shadows, the brightness of the orbs illuminating a small portion of the room.

Instinctively, Elsa took a step back and jumped when a wave of arctic air washed over her from the direction of the mirror. In shocked wonder, she watched luminescent blue ice creep around the edge of the looking glass and spread across the floor. The glow from the ice illuminated the room just enough that the queen was able to see the silhouette of the figure in the mirror staring back at her, eerie white eyes still burning brightly. Then, the impossible happened. The figure pressed a hand against the looking glass and pushed. Ripples spread out from under its palm as the glass took on a watery texture. Another push and the figure's hand emerged from behind the undulating glass, quickly followed by an arm, shoulder and torso. In two heartbeats whoever had been locked within the mirror emerged into Elsa's chambers, and the queen stared in frozen terror as the woman straightened and locked eyes with her.

The woman looked just like her; older by about ten years, but they could have been siblings. She wore a heavy cloak, looking to be made of wolf fur, over her shoulders and clasped together with a bone toggle just under her throat. The tunic she wore under the cloak was a patchwork of different leathers that reached to her knees, slit up either side for better movement, and was secured with a wide leather belt carved with intricate, interlocking designs. Her breeches were an unidentifiable black cloth, probably wool or cotton, and she wore shin high leather boots the same color as her belt. Under the leather tunic, Elsa could see the glint of chainmail, and strapped to her hip were two knives; one made out of an antler tine with a bone handle while the other…was made of ice.

The stranger stared at the queen with the cold, azure blue eyes, and Elsa noticed that her hair was the same length and color as her own, small braids woven with bits of black chainmail atop her head to keep any stray hairs off her face, and gave the strange woman a fierce appearance. This was not someone to be trifled with.

"Who are you?" Elsa whispered, not daring to raise her voice as she took another tentative step backwards. There was strange magic here; she could feel it. She could feel a buzzing under her skin as if hundreds of bees were nested there. The sensation traveled through her veins until it circulated throughout her entire body.

This had to be a dream, she must still be asleep, but why did it seem so real? In the past, her dreams could be viciously vivid, but there was always a fuzziness to them that let her know she was sleeping. As terrifying as the images were, somewhere in her mind she knew it was only her imagination, and when she realized in the dream that she_ was_ dreaming, she could sit back and watch the horrors unfold with grim satisfaction that when she woke up no one would be dead. But this, right now, this didn't feel like any sort of dream she'd ever had before which made it all the more terrifying.

"_This_ is what my bloodline has been reduced to? A whimpering pup who cowers at the voice of fear in her head like a woman cowering at the feet of an abuser?" the woman said scowling at the queen. "Have we fallen so far since the time of First Snow?"

"I…what…?"

"You are Frost Born! The first in four hundred years to walk this earth, and you are _weak_! Not weak of power, that much I can sense, but weak of mind. You do not deserve my bloodline."

Elsa saw the woman shift and immediately sensed an attack. Moving on instinct, she stamped her foot down hard on the floor to wake her magic, chambered her arm, and threw it forward in the way Revel had shown her, releasing a jagged shard of ice from the center of her palm. The projectile flew true and made a faint whistling sound as it shot towards its target, but at the last second the shard stopped in mid-flight a hairsbreadth away from the strange woman.

"Yes, I can see you have power," the woman said with a bemused half smile, "but you have so little knowledge of what a Frost Born can do. _So little knowledge_."

The queen's ice shard disintegrated in a puff of silver powder, and Elsa felt her mouth fall open. Before she could move, the strange woman raised her hands as if lifting an invisible object, palms up, and the air in front of her began to crystalize. Taking a small step back, she brought her now closed left hand to her chest and, with a smug smile pulling at her lips, opened her hand and splayed her fingers. Immediately the crystals suspended in the air before her congealed into four cohesive ice spikes and flew towards the queen. Elsa barely had enough time to raise a shield before the spikes hit her. She felt the concussion of their impact, and felt her ice shield quiver before long cracks began to form along the surface. The queen could feel an alien magic tough her own, its power far more vast and controlled than hers, and it put such a seizing fear in her chest she thought her heart would stop. An instant later her shield dissolved under the force of the alien ice magic and it fell despite her desperate attempts at raising it again.

Something hard and extremely sharp lanced across her left cheek, and Elsa's head snapped to the side with the force of the blow. Raising a trembling hand, she felt warm blood on her fingers and turned slowly towards the strange woman who stood in the center of the room. She was holding something in her hand that looked like a bullwhip, only the body of the whip was made from interlocking chinks of ice. Elsa had just enough time to register what had happened when the whips sailed back around and wound around her neck. With a hard jerk from the stranger, the queen was forced her to her knees.

Teeth gritted against the pain, Elsa grabbed hold of the tail of the whip and forced her magic to climb the body. Spikes and shards of her own ice traveled up to where the woman was holding it, and, leaning backwards, Elsa twisted the tail in her hand and heard a satisfying snap as it broke. She fell onto her back with a gasp as the whip tail dissolved.

"I'm impressed. You have enough sense to protect of yourself, when you're not wallowing in self-pity," the woman said with a shrug.

Elsa scrambled to her feet and sent two more shards of ice sailing towards her attacker, but the woman only smiled as she put out her hand. The queen's ice changed trajectory at the last second and flew around the woman like a planet in orbit before heading back towards Elsa. She raised both hands in an attempt to block the attack, and the ice shards hung suspended in front of her, quivering violently as she attempted to hold them in place.

"Do you really want to test your metal against me, pup?"

"You're a demon who is wearing my face and speaking with my voice," Elsa snarled as she strained to keep the ice spikes suspended in front of her. She had a sick feeling that if she faltered for even a split second the spikes would imbed themselves in her chest. Dream or not, it was a pain the queen didn't want to feel if she didn't have to.

"The only demon here is the one that resides in your mind," the strange woman said as she took a step forward. Elsa felt her step through the increased force pressing on the ice shards and sank to her knees as she continued to fight to keep the projectiles suspended.

"How do I know you're not lying? _You_ could be that demon for—"

Elsa would have said more had the ice shards hovering inches in front of her not disintegrated into a fine silver powder that filled her nose, mouth, and throat. She tastes the familiar tang of high mountain frost and smelled the rich scent of pine trees before the powder solidified within her body, effectively choking her. Unable to draw breath, Elsa put a hand to her throat in an attempt to remove the ice, but it would not obey her commands. Panicking, she fell forward onto her hands and tried to take a breath, but her lungs were entirely iced over and wouldn't expand. The room began to spin as lack of air took effect, but, just before she collapsed into blackness, the ice vanished and she took a breath so fast and so deep everything around her flashed a brilliant white. Only when she'd breathed in enough air to steady herself did the queen push herself onto her knees and felt fingers of ice crawl up her legs, locking them to the floor. Before she could move her hands, glowing ice encased her arms up to the elbow.

With barely a flick of her wrist, the strange woman commanded her ice to move the queen's arms behind her back. Bent at an awkward angle that arched her back and exposed her torso to an attack, Elsa stared up at the stranger with cold eyes as she breathed heavily through her nose.

"You ask who I am then accuse me of being a demon. Little pup, you have no idea what demons are. _No idea!_ I am the beginning. I am the first. I am Snaer's daughter, the daughter of snow and ice and frost."

"Saja," Elsa whispered in disbelief as she felt the buzzing under her skin return.

"Yes," Saja said, stepping up to the prone queen.

"I _am_ dreaming," Elsa chuckled, a weak sound that was more akin to a husk than a laugh.

"Think what you will," Saja replied in a flat tone as she reached for the collar of Elsa's dress and gave it a good, hard yank. The fabric tore away with ease exposing the queen's left neck and shoulder. Elsa felt a thrill of fear work through her, and she ground her teeth to stop them from chattering even as her body began to shake. Suddenly, something cold clamped down on the queen's exposed shoulder with such force she thought her collar bone would snap and cried out. Looking down, Elsa stared in disbelief at the hand gripping her: from elbow to fingertip, Saja's forearm and hand was formed from solid, crystalline ice.

"Now tell me, pup. Why should I let you live?"

"W-what?" Elsa managed to gasp. She heard a sound similar to ice cracking and watched in stunned horror as something began to form in Saja's empty hand. It started with a simple hilt and hand guard and grew, layer upon layer upon layer, until a blade descended towards her like an elongating stalactite, the wickedly sharp tip resting against the soft skin at the hollow of her throat.

"Not six hours ago you contemplated throwing yourself off your parapet wall, so obviously your life is meaningless to you. So, why shouldn't I kill you right now?"

"I…I didn't—"

"Do not lie to me!" Saja said and squeezed the queen's shoulder while pressing the blade harder into her throat.

"Y-yes...the thought…did cross my mind," Elsa hissed between gritted teeth.

"So what stopped you?"

"I…I couldn't leave Anna alone again." Saying it aloud brought tears to her eyes, and, without the ability to wipe them away, they fell down her face in long strands of silver.

A long moment passed. "Your sister is your anchor," Saja said in a softer voice, though she didn't lessen her grip on Elsa's shoulder or remove the blade from her throat.

"Yes," Elsa whispered. "She's my lifeline. I couldn't…I can't leave her like our parents did. I can't leave her to bury me."

The queen saw a flash of sadness arch across Saja's face, there one second and gone the next. Slowly, she let go of Elsa and stood, her features softening fractionally.

"Yes, I can relate to that pain."

"Why are you here," the queen asked in a small voice.

"Because you called me," Saja said turning back to the woman on her knees in front of her.

"How? When?"

"The night when your Captain attacked you. You called to me with blood on your blade." The softness left Saja's face and she again raised her ice sword towards the queen. "So I came only to find you sinking into the darkness swirling within your soul…all because of _him_. The man has poisoned your soul, sickened it to the point you would allow yourself to even contemplate taking your life."

"_Revel_ didn't do anything!" Elsa snarled, feeling a familiar spark of cold creep into her fingertips despite the fact they were encased in ice. "He wasn't in the wrong, I was! I struck first!"

"You are of my bloodline, Elsa Frosberg. The first Frost Born to be born in four hundred years. Your power is as close to mine as mine is to Snaer's, but you are weak, and the darkness within you has begun to win. And you must not let it."

"I've lived with this voice in my head for years, and it's never claimed my life. I've listened to it since I was young, since the moment I hurt my sister and was isolate from my family in order to keep them safe. It's been a near constant companion, so why should I be concerned about it now?"

"Because you've never been in love before, and love tends to destroy more than it heals."

Elsa felt her mouth fall open in disbelief. Her first instinct was denial. Of course she didn't love Revel. They were friends, or had been before that night, displaying a form of professional courtesy towards one another. But there was more than just courtesy between them, and Elsa knew it. There was something more, but she could hardly call what she felt towards the Captain love. Right?

"I don't—"

Elsa stopped speaking when Saja's icy hand clamped down on her shoulder again. She didn't squeeze nearly as hard as she had the first time, but she held the queen in a firm grip.

"It matters not how strong you've been in the past, or how strong you think you are now, that voice _will_ eventually kill you. So I will make certain you never listen to it again."

Saja's eyes, which had returned to a familiar cerulean blue, flared with power, the blue dissolving into a static white that glowed with an unearthly light. Elsa felt a spark of cold brush against her shoulder and flinched. When the spark shifted from a slow burn to a searing inferno, the queen bucked against the pain but couldn't find her voice to scream. Head thrown back in a wordless cry, she felt her magic rise to the surface and pool under Saja's hand, two warring magics colliding under flesh and blood and bone. Arctic power erupted from both women like waves crashing in to one another, one untamed and unpredictable, the other serenely alien but catastrophically powerful.

Elsa felt something inside her break and finally found her voice. Her screams matched the screaming in her head, the din of a hundred thousand voices, collected into an unimaginably small singularity, all crying out at the same time. It was maddening, and she feared she'd lose herself to the cries and never escape them. That's when she felt the threads of magic weave their way into her mind, into her subconscious, into her soul. They were unimaginably bright, like strands of sunlight pulled from the heavens, and they permeated every inch of her being until there was no room for the darkness to hide.

The last of the darkness fled form Elsa's eyes and slowly they started to glow the same shade of white as Saja's. The woman released the queen and dissolved the ice holding her in place, catching her as she fell and gently lowering her to the floor.

"You bare my mark Elsa Frosberg; you bare the mark of Snaer and all of her kind. From now on it will be my voice you hear and not the voice of the demon of fear. Rest now. We will speak again soon."

The queen opened her mouth to say more, to ask whether this was a dream or not, but her vision clouded and the room and Saja ceased to exist.

* * *

><p>Elsa woke to being gently shaken and moaned, attempting to roll away from whoever was shaking her. She heard her name being called, felt a hand on her arm, and begrudgingly cracked open her eyes. The world swam into clarity around her, and she realized Anna was crouched over her, face white with fear, tears streaking down her cheeks.<p>

"Anna?" she asked in a hoarse voice. She attempted to roll towards her sister and felt something sharp crack and snap under her. Confused, she looked down and saw tiny fragments of herself looking back at her and realized she was lying on a bed of glass.

"Hey, hey, it's ok," Anna hiccupped, fighting back more tears that wanted to fall. "Don't move, we've got you."

"We?"

Elsa became aware of two other people in the room. From her angle on the floor, she could see the big guard Sigmund, Revel's right hand man, move towards her and gently pick her up with as much effort as someone picking up a small child. In four long strides he'd reached her bed and gently set her down before withdrawing silently. The second person was Physician Brynja who approached the bed with a look of focused concern on her round face.

"How are you feeling, Majesty?" the plump woman asked while setting a large leather bag on the edge of the bed.

"What happened?" Elsa mumbled, giving the room a good once over. There didn't appear to be anything out of place or broken save for the mirror lying on the floor next to her vanity. Glittering shards of glass littered the carpet and winked molten white in the light coming from her tall triangular window, and she idly wondered if everything that had happened last night had just been an exceptionally vivid dream. She could still recall bits and pieces of her encounter with Saja, the first Frosberg, but the more she dwelled on it the harder it became to focus on the once clear images.

"You didn't show for your meeting with Duke Ferdinand," Anna explained quietly, standing next to the Physician as if afraid to approach her sister's bed. Elsa wondered when her sister and Kristoff had returned. Hadn't they left yesterday? "When you didn't show for your council meeting this morning, Kai got worried, so I told them I'd come and see if you were feeling alright…" Anna's voice suddenly broke, and the tears she'd been trying to hold in flowed down her face. "I found you on the floor surrounded by glass," the princess choked. "And there was blood. I thought…I thought you'd—"

Anna didn't need to finish her sentence for Elsa to know what she was talking about. A small bit of pain tugged at the skin just under her left eye, and she felt a hot line of puffy skin under her cool fingers. Had that been from the glass….or something else? Dismissing her hazy thoughts for the moment, the queen reached for her sister and took her hand.

"It's alright, Anna. I'm alright."

"Majesty, forgive me, but you are anything but alright," Brynja said calmly. "You've been lying on your floor for almost two days."

Elsa stared at the woman in shock, Anna's words coming back to her. She's missed Duke Ferdinand's meeting which had been scheduled for Friday. She'd also missed her council meeting which had been for Saturday morning. That meant…

"It's Saturday afternoon?" the queen gaped, her face paling.

"Yes, Majesty. I suspect your lack of rest and adequate food intake finally caught up to you in the worst way. From what I can surmise, you fainted while coming back to your room and fell into your mirror. That would explain the cut on your face and your torn dress. What I can't explain," Brynja said lowering her voice, "is the mark on your shoulder."

Elsa felt the world tip to one side as the rest of the blood drained from her face. What mark? Gingerly, she turned to look at her left shoulder and stared mutely at the bluish purple bruise taking up a good portion of her skin. No, it wasn't just a bruise. It was a handprint. A handprint that was almost metallic in color and cold to the touch. A sick feeling began to coil in her stomach, and she swallowed in order to combat her nausea. It couldn't have been real…it had to have been a dream…

"Was there someone else with you the night before last, Majesty?"

_Yes,_ Elsa thought numbly, _my ancient ancestor came to visit and chastise me for my month of self-pity. Then she did….something to me._

That much she could remember, though even the once clear memory was fading into obscurity. So, instead of answering truthfully, she lied and told the Physician no. The woman took the queen at her word. Anna, however, was a different matter. She, of course, knew her sister was lying, and the wounded look she gave as her sister lied through her teeth was enough to break Elsa's heart all over again.

"I'll mix up some tea for you that will help you sleep a little more soundly. My advice is to stay in bed for the remainder of the day and regain your strength. The cut on your cheek doesn't need stitches, but it does need ointment."

Elsa could only nod as she watched Brynja steep her tea and leave it beside the bed for her convenience. Then the woman gently cleaned the queen's face and put a sweet smelling salve on the cut to keep it from becoming infected. A quick search turned up no other cuts or lacerations, so Brynja left, leaving the royal sisters alone, suspended in a fragile silence.

"I'm sorry, Anna, for…for everything. I've been really—"

"I thought you'd killed yourself," Anna suddenly blurted, body shaking with the effort of keeping her voice stable.

Elsa flinched as if struck and stared at her sister. "I would never leave you like that."

"How was I supposed to know that?!" Anna screamed, fresh tears falling. "You haven't said more than a handful of words to me all month, so how am I supposed to know what you're thinking? Then I walk in here and found you on the floor…you were so pale, Elsa, and you didn't wake up when I shook you the first time. Or the second. Or the third. And then I saw the blood…"

Anna trailed off and wrapped her arms around herself just like her sister did when she felt overwhelmed with emotion. Her tears were falling faster now, and she hiccupped while trying to draw a deep breath. Elsa attempted to sit up and swing her legs over the side of the bed, but Anna backed away from her.

"I can't…I can't do this right now. It's all too much."

"Anna please, I'm sorry—"

But the princess turned and fled from her sister's room, the door slamming shut behind her. Elsa watched her go and felt a fresh wave of guilt wash over her.

_I really scared her, didn't I?_

_Your fear and her fear are the same, Frost Born._

Elsa jumped at the sound of Saja's voice and nearly fell of her bed. Looking around, she expected the woman to be standing in the room with her, but she was alone and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Maybe I will lay down for a little bit," the queen said settling back against her pillows, a little shaken. This time, when sleep finally took her there were no nightmares waiting for her, only fragmented images of a time long past and the woman responsible for forging a kingdom.

* * *

><p>"You were late getting off your shift, Sigmund. Everything alright?" Revel asked without looking up from the papers he was signing as the big guard slipped into the Captain's office to hand in his report for the day.<p>

"There was trouble in the residency wing. I was summoned by Princess Anna to aid the Queen," Sigmund said as he stood with his hands behind his back after handing his Captain his report.

"Something happen with Her Majesty?" Revel asked, looking up in surprise, and tried to keep his voice an even mix of neutrality and concern even though his stomach was doing summersaults.

"Her Majesty collapsed in her quarters. I was needed to carry her to her bed so that Physician Brynja could examine her."

"Is she alright?" Revel frowned, his knuckles going white as he gripped the armrests of his chair.

"You'll have to speak to the Physician. I left after my duties were complete in order to give the Princess and Physician privacy."

"Thank you, Sigmund," Revel said woodenly and dismissed his guard. Only once the big guard was gone did the Captain let out a slow breath and lean back in his chair. Elsa had collapsed? Something about this didn't feel right, but, then again, he'd not see the queen for a solid month save for the few times he'd caught a glimpse of her in the castle window or while he was making his rounds. She didn't acknowledge him, didn't even appear to see him, or anything around her for that matter, so he'd taken the hint and stayed away from her even though it was agony to do so.

Ending their sessions together had been a decision that nearly killed him. After carrying the queen back to her chambers after her episode in the training chamber, using the passageways and servant's entrances hidden behind the castle walls that had been installed hundreds of years ago, Revel hadn't known what to do or say to Elsa the next time they saw one another. Truth be told, she'd scared him that night. It hadn't just been the power that had rolled off her or the eerie white glow of her eyes; it had been the fury he'd seen etched into every inch of her body. She'd been angry enough to kill that evening, and the Captain functioned under no disillusion that she could have very easily ended his life. Facing death oftentimes makes a person skittish, and Revel was just a little too hesitant to resume their sessions. So, like the coward he felt himself to be, he'd called them off, and that had been the moment Elsa had stopped speaking to him, speaking to anyone in general, and completely closed down.

_I have a nasty feeling this is all my fault,_ Revel thought to himself as he stared at the ceiling. He knew eventually he'd have to speak to her, but, if she were ill, he'd have to wait.

_Maybe after my shift tomorrow patrolling the castle, I'll check and see if she's doing any better. It is, after all, the duty of the Guard to ensure the royal family's safety, is it not?_

* * *

><p>Elsa woke after noon the next morning, thankful it was Sunday. Being a day of rest, she had nothing planned and looked forward to another day of peace, though the bed rest Physician Brynja had ordered her to take chaffed at her a bit. The last thing she wanted to do was lay in bed all day, especially since she'd slept most of yesterday and half of today. Restless, she got up and got dressed, pausing long enough to look at the bruise on her shoulder in her new mirror. The angry purple and black colors had faded over night, but the handprint was still a metallic, still icy blue and cold to the touch.<p>

Sighing, Elsa pulled on her underdress, not daring to reveal this mark to anyone for a while until she could think of a good excuse for it being there, and headed for the kitchen. Gerda was only too happy to serve the queen an afternoon meal, and Elsa ate with surprising gusto. How long ago had she eaten?

_If I have to ask myself that question it's been far too long._

After eating her fill, and inquiring if the service matron had seen her sister, Elsa thanked her and headed for her study. Anna had gone off with Kristoff that morning and hadn't said when she'd be back.

_All the better,_ Elsa thought as she stepped into her study and shut the door behind her. _It'll give me time to work out an apology to her._

If her memory was accurate, the queen had a few more papers to sign before she could adequately relax which she promptly spent the next hour on and declared herself finished. Picking up the stack of books that belonged in the library, Elsa walked across the hall, but stopped before she opened the door. She heard someone moving around inside and sighed. Maybe her sister had returned sooner than planned. Though she knew she needed to speak to Anna, the queen didn't think she had the nerve or the right words. The princess had been beyond upset when she'd run from her sister's room yesterday, and Elsa hadn't taken the time to process the last two days or so yet, let alone prepare a proper grovel.

_Better get this over with_, she thought taking a breath and pushing the door open. Stepping in, she didn't see anyone among the stacks, but the balcony door was open, the curtains fluttering gently in the wake of a small breeze. She set the books down on the table against the wall and was just about to call out to her sister when Revel stepped back into the library from the balcony and secured the door behind him.

Elsa froze and felt a seizing terror work up her legs and spread across her chest the moment she realized who was in the room with her.

_Why did it have to be him?_ The queen thought as the frantic, uncontrollable fear spread throughout her body. _Of all people, why him and why now?_

Suddenly, she couldn't get the images of the dream she'd had two nights ago out of her head. The Captain under her, eyes bright with fear and pain, as she slowly pressed the arrow into his chest. She could see the blood, bright as paint, spreading out from the wound as his eyes dimmed, his last breath leaving his body in a pained wheeze. Elsa instantly wanted nothing more than to run from the library and get herself as far from Revel as possible. If she didn't, she feared her dream could become a reality.

The Captain pulled up short when he realized who had walked through the door, but whatever greeting he'd prepared to say died in his throat. The look Elsa was giving him could only be described as absolute terror, her face turned waxy white in a matter of seconds. Despite the day having turned out to be warmer than most February days, he could feel a bitter cold creep into the room.

"Majesty," Revel greeted softly and nodded his head. As she shifted back a step, he was able to get a better look at her face and saw the long gash across her left cheek. The skin was still slightly red but it looked to have begun scabbing over already. He fought the reflex to rush over and examine the wound himself to make certain she was alright. For safety's sake, he decided remaining where he stood would be in his best interest right now.

Elsa stared at him for a few more seconds before turning swiftly and reaching for the door, heart pounding so loudly in her ears it was like she was standing next a storm surge.

"Majesty!" Revel called as she reached the door and turned to knob. "Elsa, please wait."

The queen stopped but didn't turn, preferring to keep her back to him while she struggled to master the clash of emotions taking place within her chest.

_Control it. Conceal it. Don't let him see the fear. Be a queen right now and a scared little girl when you can get back to your room. Conceal it!_

Turning around slowly, Elsa arranged her face into a familiar, neutral mask and folded her arms over her chest subconsciously.

"Good afternoon, Captain," she said flatly.

Revel stared in disbelief at the transformation he'd just witnessed. Three seconds ago, the queen had looked at him like a rabbit who had been running from a bear only to come face to face with a wolf. There had been so much terror in her eyes he could have thought she'd seen a ghost. But now there stood cool neutrality staring back at him from across the room, and not a hint of fear anywhere on her face. Only her tense stance gave away the true emotions boiling under her skin.

_She's that good at putting on a mask_, Revel thought with dumb disbelief. _I don't think I could have switched over that quickly at a time like this._

He gathered his wits and attempted to start the conversation again. "I was hoping you and I could speak privately about what happened last month. I believe I need to explain myself."

"There's no need for an explanation. Your feelings were made quite clear in your letter, and I do not wish to speak with you, privately or otherwise."

Revel flinched at the rebuke, warmth rising into his cheeks, not expecting it to hurt so much.

Elsa felt a shift inside her as her fear quickly melted under the heat of anger building in her chest. Yes, she'd understood him perfectly in his letter. It was an excuse to distance himself. An excuse to decide for himself whether or not she really was a monster.

_Are we really going to go through this dance again?_

Saja's voice again, but Elsa ignored it.

"Elsa, what happened between us, it—"

"I said I did not want to speak on the matter. You were well within your rights to end our sessions. In fact, I think it should have been done sooner rather than later. It was only a matter of time before one of us got hurt, and I'm not surprised in the least that things turned out the way they did. Now, if you'll excuse me, sir, I have business to attend to elsewhere. Good afternoon, Captain."

"What's happened to you, Elsa?" Revel frowned as he stepped off the small landing in front of the balcony and strode into the middle of the room. "Why the sudden cold shoulders towards me? You and I were fine up until that night, and yes, I think things could have gone better, but now you're pushing me away as if you're going to hurt me if I get close."

"Perhaps it's not you who is in danger of being hurt," Elsa replied with such coolness Revel felt himself shiver.

He stared at her for a long time. Yes, something had changed between them. Where there had once been a companionable warmth now there was only cold distance. She was pulling away from him, no, had pulled away from him. The woman standing with him in the library wasn't the Elsa he'd come to know over their months of training. This was the queen of Arendelle, the stoic ruler of a prosperous kingdom who never let herself get close to anyone in the best interest of her country. But he knew better than to believe that the Elsa he'd come to know and care for was gone forever. Despite the coldness in her eyes, Revel could still see a spark of warmth somewhere deep within, but he was helpless to reach it and didn't even have an inkling how he'd try.

Helplessness gave way to frustration which gave way to anger the longer they stared at one another. Revel felt his body beginning to tense as the heat in his chest built like a fire banked with fresh logs. This wasn't fair. The way she was treating him wasn't fair, and it was enough of an injustice that it almost left him snarling. Finally, he couldn't stand the silence any longer and plowed headlong into a conversation he knew the queen didn't want to have.

_But damn it, we're having it whether she likes it or not_.

"What can I do, Elsa? What can I say to bridge this distance between us? Because I've wracked my brain since that night trying to figure out what happened and where things went wrong and how I could have fixed our relationship. So tell me, what can I do; because I'm at a loss?"

"I want you to stay away from me," the queen declared with as much regal firmness as she could muster after a long, harsh silence. Watching Revel's face fall, his shoulders slumping in defeat, nearly killed her, and she couldn't help but lower her gaze for a fraction of a second.

"You don't mean that," he said after a stunned moment. He'd not expected that kind of answer.

"I do. I want you as far away from me as possible. Board a ship to a neighboring kingdom and take up residence there, so long as you're not here anymore."

"Is that a command?" he asked after a moment of stunned shock.

"A powerful suggestion," Elsa replied lifting her chin.

"Why?" Revel said crossing his arms over his chest. His soul crushing desolation quickly dissipated as anger came center stage.

"I don't have to give you a reason," the queen said.

"I think you do."

"And I think you forget your place, _Captain._ I am your Queen, therefore I have—"

"Do not," Revel interrupted with a growl, "use your royal title to bully me out of your life! I had thought us friends, but even if my assumption was off the mark, you cannot and will not force me out of your kingdom, _my home_, without first giving me a decent reason as to what I've done to wrong you!"

The look on Elsa's face could have been enough to kill a charging bear at a hundred yards, and the Captain felt the room's temperature take a drastic dive.

"Get out," she hissed through gritted teeth, her jaw clenched so tightly her ears were staring to buzz.

Revel squared his shoulders and stared at her, blatant defiance etched into every inch of his body.

"I said, get out!" Elsa took a dangerous step towards him and pointed towards the door, ice cracking under foot. She felt a spark of ice accumulate in her right hand, will-ice creeping up her fingers and quickly climbing her arms like vines.

"No," Revel countered, advancing forward a step, green eyes catching the afternoon sun and setting them aflame. "I will not leave without an explanation."

"I can _make_ you leave." Elsa raised her right hand to show him the glowing aquamarine blue ice quickly engulfing her arm to emphasize her point. The Captain, however, didn't seem fazed by her threat and cocked an eyebrow at the queen.

"You would bully me with your title _and_ your powers? How very _royal_ of you, Majesty."

It was a wonder he caught her hand in time before it smashed across his face, an act that could have ended poorly for a man made of flesh and blood like him, but Revel was quick and held the queen by her wrist, their bodies now only feet apart.

"You son of a bi—"

"All I ask is for a reason, Elsa. Give it to me, and I'll leave tonight. You'll never see me again, that I can promise, but you owe me an explanation for this sudden hate you feel towards me."

The queen opened her mouth to speak, to scream at the man holding her, to purge herself of the furry and fear and trepidation, but no words came out. She tried again, tried to force her tongue to form the words she so desperately wanted to say.

"Because…" she managed, face set in a snarl.

"There's no logic to that. Try again."

"I…this thing between us…it's…" Elsa swore and pulled hard against the Revel's grip on her icy wrist. "Let me go."

"An answer, Majesty. Was it something I did to you?"

"No—"

"Was it something I said?"

"No, it—"

"Have I overstepped my bounds? Aside from this moment, have I done anything to harm you—"

"Goddamnit, I wanted to kill you!" Elsa shouted and used both her free hand and captured arm to shove the Captain backwards with shocking force. Taken by surprise, Revel stumbled and would have fallen flat on his ass had he not caught himself on the table beside him.

"What?" he managed as he pulled himself back to his feet.

"Do you know how close I came to killing you?" the queen said, hands wrapped around her waist as the images of her dreams returned. "I wanted to sheathe that knife in your throat! Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to kill you, to make you bleed, and I wanted so _badly_ to give in. Do you know what that feels like; to totter on the edge of moral reason because, in my mind, you looked like the man who tried to kill me a year ago?!"

"You remember the episode?" Revel gaped, eyebrows shooting into his hairline.

"I remember everything, Revel, _everything_! I remember the chamber, and I remember pinning you to a wall. I remember the knife in my hand and the blood on the floor and the look of terror on your face. I remember it all so clearly. Did you know," Elsa said as she began backing away from Revel, putting distance between the two of them, "that when in the grips of the Warrior's Terror most victims don't usually remember their actions? I've read it's quite uncommon for someone to recall what happened and even more uncommon for someone _to remember with such clarity they have nightmares about it!_"

Suddenly, Revel's smoldering anger died as if a cold bucket of water had been thrown on the embers. This wasn't about Elsa being angry with him; it had everything to do with her being afraid. He could see it so clearly, the way she held herself, closing herself off, making herself as small as possible. She was terrified, not of him, but of herself, and he realized with a pang of guilt she was pushing him away in order to protect him.

"I…I'm sorry," he managed after a moment and took step towards her, his features softening. "I didn't realize—"

"Don't," Elsa warned backing up again, but she had nowhere to go with the library door pressed against her back. "Don't touch me, and don't pity me. Just…leave."

"I'm not pitting you, Elsa," Revel assured her softly. "I'd never pity someone…like me. I just wish I'd have seen the signs sooner. You and I, we share the same scars, the same fears. I _do_ know what it feels like to hold a life in my hands. I know the moral balancing act that goes through your mind, and I've heard the same screaming for blood you have. But you must understand you won the battle by _not_ giving in. I'm still here. I'm still alive, so what happened that night doesn't matter."

"_Doesn't matter_? Look at your goddamn arm!" She pointed at his arm where his guard's jacket hid his bandages. "_I_ did that!"

"Out of fear! It was all out of fear! None of what happened had any malcontent behind it; you were just scared, and that was _my_ fault. We were both in a bad way when our session started. I could have put an end to it, but I didn't, so the blame is mostly mine."

"Oh, how noble," Elsa laughed bitterly. "The valiant Captain swooping in to take the blame so that the Snow Queen feels less like a monster and her loyal subjects are less likely to tear her apart by angry mob. How wonderfully Arthurian."

"I'm not trying to be romantic or chivalrous with you, Elsa. I'm your instructor. It's my duty to maintain a safe environment for you to train in, and I didn't do that. I let my own personal frustrations get the better of me and that, in turn, hurt you. So yes, I'm the one to blame."

"I just…I just can't get the look on your face out of my head," Elsa exhaled, putting both hands on either side of her head and hunching forward. It wasn't the attack in the training chamber she was remembering but the disturbing dream of how she'd gone through with killing him.

"I'm not afraid of you," Revel soothed gently.

"You were then, and you should be now!" Elsa screamed at him, and ice crept up the library door behind her. "I'm the monster my kingdom thinks I am; I've just become wonderful at hiding it."

"You're not a monster."

"You don't have the right to tell me what I am! You don't know what I'm capable of." The image of an arrowhead sliding into his chest between his ribs, and the queen shivered. "None of you do. I came so close, Revel. Just like with Anna; I came….so close."

Revel could see tears glittering in her eyes, her cerulean blue color bright with anguish and fear. She tried to blink them away, but gravity had other plans and pulled them down her face in long silvery streaks. Before he realized he'd moved, the Captain was standing in front of her. He attempted to cup the sides of her face in his hands and thumb away her tears, but Elsa jerked away.

"Stop. Just…go away, Revel. Please," she said in a quivering voice barely above a whisper.

But the Captain didn't stop, not this time. He managed to set both of his hands on either side of her jaw, her skin strangely lukewarm where it should have been hot from the exertion of emotions, and lifted her head towards his. It came as no great surprise she was shaking like a leaf, breaths of arctic air swirling around her. Revel locked eyes with Elsa, staring down at her with such tender kindness behind his green eyes that she felt her heart skip a beat.

"I am not afraid of you," Revel said slowly, enunciating every word. "I never have been, and I never will be."

It wasn't as if he'd planned it, but perhaps it was better that way. The world slowed down around him as his body moved on its own accord, and he brought his lips together with hers. Ice and fire chose that moment to explode in his chest, warmth jockeying with chilling goosebumps that raced across his skin and mingled with the blood pounding like a drum in his ears. He didn't know how long he kissed her, it could have been seconds, it could have been hours, but when he pulled away he wasn't met with the sobering slap he'd been expecting.

Elsa stared wide eyed at him, body pressed so firmly against the library door she feared she'd meld into the wood. It wasn't until her lungs began to burn that she realized she wasn't breathing and took a long, slow breath like a diver coming up for air. Electricity crackled through her veins like bottled lightning, making focusing on anything shy of breathing and blinking extremely difficult. When at last her mind caught up with her, she noticed a slurry of new and previously unfelt sensations flashing through her body in rhythm with her heartbeat and pooling in her abdomen.

A pregnant silence stretched between the two, captain looking down at queen, both frozen in place like startled animals waiting for the other to move. Neither knew who broke first, but they came together like a tide heralding a storm. It began with tender, hesitant kisses meant to probe and tease, before building into something more akin to lustful passion.

Revel, the more experienced of the two, took the lead, and she gladly relinquished control to him, melting in his arms as their embrace deepened. Teasingly, he slid is tongue along her bottom lip before biting it gently, sparking a halting gasp from her. It was a silent request for entrance Elsa was all too willing to allow, and Revel plunged in with hungry desire. To his great surprise, her mouth was much cooler that he'd expected, her breath like peppermint that tingled on his tongue and left him craving more. By contrast, the captain tasted like tea and spices; the warmth of his tongue gliding across her own and probing the depths of her mouth, as satisfactory as the first warm breeze of spring.

Mouths currently preoccupied, the two let their hands wander and explore, fingers tangling in hair, running up and down shoulders, arm, and backs. Like a blind man learning brail for the first time, Elsa and Revel sought to learn every curve, every dip, every rise of the other's body until they could conjure a perfect image of the other's anatomy with just a thought. The barrier of clothing was a mild irritation, but it did stop their exploration. Eventually the two had to break away for adequate air, but the breech didn't last long, and Revel took the opportunity to let his mouth explore new territory. He began along the curve of her neck and worked his way down, laying gentle kisses as he went and was rewarded when Elsa arched against him, breath catching in her throat. Her arms instinctively wound around his neck, fingers running through his thick brown hair. She drew him closer, hungry for the feeling of his skin against hers and the gentle caress of his lips.

Without realizing it, Revel slid his hands down along Elsa's hips and cupped her legs just under her buttocks. In a fluid motion he couldn't possibly recreate while not in the throes of passion, he picked her up and pressed her against the library door, his weight pinning her in place. Elsa immediately wrapped her legs around his waist and felt the unyielding rigidity of his arousal press into her groin as she drew him closer, a slow burn beginning to build in her abdomen.

It was a mystery to both how they'd ended up on the low couch half way across the library, the queen straddling Revel, skirt bunched up around her waist. Neither could recall as to how Elsa's undergarments and bodice had been removed and discarded beside the door, or how Revel's breeches had been undone, his belt sitting coiled on the floor beside his feet like a skinny black snake. Those little mysteries would later be revisited when the all-consuming fires of passion finally subsided and the two could think clearly again.

Sensing her hesitance by the way she tensed when he moved in, Revel drew back and looked up, marveling for a brief moment at her unearthly beauty. The redness of her face and neck stood in stark contrast to the smooth paleness of the rest of her skin and the rich purple of her underdress, making her eyes stand out like beacons. The underdress sat skewed on her shoulders, allowing him a clear view of right side of Elsa's slender neck all the way down to her collar bone. Her hair was a tussled mess, the once loose braid keeping it back having fallen open, allowing her long platinum locks to flow down to the middle of her back. Truly, she was a striking beauty, and Revel felt himself smile as he put a warm hand against the cool skin of her neck. Elsa leaned into his touch, bright eyes not leaving his for an instant. He could see her unspoken question, see the hesitation and uncertainty, and it made him want to wrap her in his arms and hold her for eternity.

"Are you sure?" he asked in a quiet whisper.

Not trusting her voice, Elsa only nodded, curious and afraid of how this game would play out but uncaring all the same. Today, at this moment, she was no longer the queen, was no longer the stoic ruling monarch of a prosperous kingdom. Today she was simply a woman who needed the love of a man, who hungered for his touch, who craved the feeling of his body intertwining with hers. It was a terrifying yet thrilling thought. She latched onto the swirling sensations of euphoria and terror jockeying for position in her mind and rode them like a charging stallion.

Consent given, Revel gently took Elsa by the hips and guided her into position above him. She could feel the heat of him pressed against her opening and sighed raggedly, legs suddenly weak. Revel held her aloft with strong arms and felt her body tense as he slowly slid in, her breath catching and arms winding around his shoulders. For a terrifying moment, he feared he'd lose himself to the desperate need to feel her surrounding him and fought to retain some semblance of human thought as his mind slipped into a more primal state. When he felt resistance within her warm wetness, he stopped and cursed silently. It was always easier for a man when it came to the act of lovemaking. For a woman, especially for a woman during her first time, there was pain to be had. Not wanting to draw out the act any longer, Revel quickly pulled her toward him and thrust deep.

Elsa let out a cry of pain and gripped the back of the couch with trembling hands, ice encasing the ornate rosewood backing and spreading onto the floor. Revel felt her magic against his shoulder blades, but remained still, weathering the cold while reveling in her warmth and tightness. The queen was accustomed to physical pain, her years of learning ice magic had dulled her body to most normal discomforts, but the tearing she'd felt inside her had been a shock she'd not expected. Breath coming in short, pained gasps, she leaned against her lover, trembling.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered softly as he held her close and buried his face in the rich, wintery scent of her hair. "That's the worst of it, I promise."

Reaching around and moving her hair off her shoulders, Revel kissed her several times on the neck and was rewarded when Elsa shuddered and bit her bottom lip. A small grin started to pull at his lips, and he kissed her again, this time moving slowly up the curve of her neck until he reached her ear. She moaned softly, previous discomfort slowly evaporating as Revel continued to lay down teasing kisses along her collar bone and up her throat. When he finally made it back to her lips the pain of her breaking was gone and he began rolling her hips in a slow rhythm, his wide hands pressed against her thighs showing her the motion. Pain giving way to building pleasure, Elsa followed Revel's lead and rolled her hip in time with his, each thrust accustoming her to his size and girth. As their rhythms synced, he let his hands wander under the fabric of her skirt, fingers gliding over the smooth skin of her thighs, up into the small arch of her lower back, and around to her flat, tight stomach.

Elsa suddenly arched into Revel, and he growled softly as wintery breath of magic sparked against the back of his neck where the queen's right hand currently rested. Ice particles trickled down his spine and made him shiver and gasp, which forced him to rise off the back of the couch and push deeper into her river rock slickness. Elsa groaned and squeezed him tighter with her legs, tangling her fingers in his icy hair. Their movements were becoming more hungry, their kisses deeper and more passionate as their bodies woke to a new kind of fire that engulfed every inch of their being. She could feel Revel moving inside her, growing and twitching as he neared the height of his passion. Forehead to forehead, they kissed only to come apart again, ragged breath intermingling into a warm cloud suspended around their heads. Elsa could feel her ice manifesting around her, the temperature fluctuating erratically, but was unwilling to pull away from him to see what it was doing.

As their passion wore on, Elsa began to feel a small spark growing somewhere within her abdomen. It was hardly noticeable at first, but as her hips rolled, and Revel's member becoming impossibly stiff inside her, she felt the spark grow until she thought she was going to burst into flames. Internal heat was a new sensation for her, and she moved at a desperate speed, chasing the lightning spreading through her body like fire through dry brush. Revel sensed her need, could feel her body tightening around him, and kept pace, his own euphoric pleasure mounting to a near cataclysmic peak. So close, they were both so close… until they heard the door handle jiggle seconds before someone walked in.

"Hey, Elsa, sorry to bother you, but I needed to talk —_ooohhh my holy God!_ Oh, Saint's and _fucking_ Martyrs, I'm so sorry. Shit, I'm so…oh god… I'm so, so sorry," Anna said stumbling back out of the library and slamming the door shut behind her with a resounding bang.

Captain and queen both froze, neither moving for a few breathless heartbeats, orgasmic pleasure completely forgotten. It took a moment for them both to realize what had just happened, what Anna had just seen and what this could mean. However, once the shock had passed they broke into fits of nervous laughter.

"I…um…heh…maybe we should…"

"Yes…definitely yes," Revel said easing himself out of her while fighting to maintain some semblance of self-control.

Elsa's legs felt like jelly, muscles quivering when she put weight on them, and had to steady herself against the arm of the couch, all the while aware of a warm wetness trailing down her leg. She ached a bit, but it wasn't anything a long hot soak wouldn't cure. Revel quickly re-buttoned his breeches and secured his belt, thankful that he was wearing black. It hid the large wet stain on the front of his crotch enough that he could make it back to his chambers and change without someone noticing. How he was going to walk while still painfully erect he hadn't the foggiest idea, but he was definitely going to have to take care of it when he was fully alone.

The queen nervously cleared her throat, upper body still flushed from their lovemaking. She didn't quite know how to end something like this, especially when they'd been interrupted half way through. Did they shake hands? Embrace? Pick up where they'd left off, castle staff and Anna be damned?

_ This is karma coming back to bite me for me interrupting Anna and Kristoff in the hall,_ she thought with a sigh.

"Well, um…good afternoon, Revel," she said and rubbed her arm, feeling all the world like child caught getting into mischief with a friend. Hands shaking, she tucked them into her armpits and gave him a wobbly smile. How was she supposed to feel after sex? At the moment there was a mix of giddiness and genuine frustration warring inside her, and…peace. It took her a minute to recognize and place the feeling, and never had it been more soothing or welcome.

"Same to you…Elsa," Revel said and walked stiffly past her. Reaching the door, he suddenly turned around and rushed back, pulling her into as deep an embrace as he possibly could, one arm around her waist and the other behind her head. She melted into him almost instantly this time, a gentle moan sounding at the back of her throat. When they finally separated, Elsa had a goofy smile on her face that match Revel's perfectly.

"This won't be the last time," he whispered and kissed her one more time. "I swear to God, it won't be the last time."

Mind finally reforming from the putty it had become, Elsa gave him a devilish smile and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulling him towards her with a forceful yank.

"It damn well better not be," she husked into his ear before releasing him and walking over to the door.

Revel stifled a groan, his pants already beyond uncomfortably tight. "T-tonight then?"

"Tonight."

He gave her one last kiss, poked his head out just to be sure Anna had gone, then hastily made his way towards the back of the castle where he could slip out unnoticed.

Elsa watched him go, leaning against the doorframe until he'd disappeared from sight and let out a gusty sigh, her body feeling like it was walking on air. When she turned back to the couch she jerked back and had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing aloud. The entire surface was encased in ice that had bunched at either armrest and began creeping towards the ceiling in a sweeping arch. From where she stood, it almost look like her ice had been trying to form into the shape of a stylized heart, and Elsa felt her goofy grin return.

_Sending me subconscious messages now, eh? Well, I see what you're trying to tell me._

With the wave of her hand she dispersed her ice and gathered her discarded undergarments by the door before stepping out of the library. She hoped she wouldn't run into Anna for a while, leaving her time to figure out a way to explain herself to her younger sister. She was certain the princess hadn't been able to see who she'd been with on the couch, but there was no hiding _what_ they'd been doing.

_What we were doing…_ Elsa mused happily, a giddy laugh building in her throat. _What we were doing was something I never thought could happen to me._

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><p><strong>AN:** Ok, this needs to be said before I get slammed with messages. This was going to happen one way or another, and I think 12 chapters is damn well long enough of a wait. And before I get any hate about needing to slow the process down between Elsa and Revel and let the tension build, sex isn't always a planned thing. When there is passion and the need to be held by the one you love, or the one making you feel the best at the moment, intercourse is bound to happen. We are human, and humans are irrational. Will there be consequences later on for this, morally or otherwise, perhaps. You'll just have to keep reading.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** Ok my lovely readers, here is the much anticipated chapter 13. Not as large as the other three chapters have been, but no less stressful (in a good way!) to write. I'd like to take the chance, right now, to thank those of you who sent me messages of encouragement and healing here on FFN and tumblr. I'm trying to reply to all of them, but I just wanted to say thank you. You guys are awesome. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

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><p>Anna peered around the corner of the alcove she'd hidden in, not sure if she was breathing or not. After a moment she scrubbed her burning eyes with shaking hands as if trying to rub the memory out of her head.<p>

_What did I just see?! Oh God, I can't _un-see _it!_

She knew the answer, knew exactly what had been going on between her sister and…someone. It was just impossible to fathom that Elsa would ever, _ever_ do anything like that in public, or at all! It had been like walking in on her parents, which thank all the saints in Christendom she'd never done, and Anna shivered for the fifth time despite the hallway being comfortably sun warmed.

Still rubbing her face, the princess heard the library door creek open and fought for half a heartbeat to keep from looking, but curiosity won over the need for discretion, and she peered around the corner. At first she saw only the front half of an open door and pressed herself against the edge of the alcove, heart hammering in her chest. When at last the person opened the door and leaned around the outer edge to peer down the hallway, the princess had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

_Revel? Sweet mother of Christ…Revel?!_

Hundreds of questions exploded in her head so fast for half a second Anna's vision went blindingly white. The guard Captain, seeing nothing in the hallway, quickly closed the door behind him and headed in the opposite direction of Anna, tugging at his pants as he went. Suddenly breathless, she pressed her back against the alcove and felt her mouth shape a perfect 'O' of shock that faded when she heard the library door open again as her sister emerged, straightening her top and skirt in an attempt to appear as normal as possible.

_I have to talk to her…no, I can't! I mean, she already knows I know, but, with me knowing, she knows I'm going to talk to her…right? Wait, she's the oldest…wouldn't she already know about this stuff. Did Mother and Father ever talk to her about the 'snake and the cave'? Oh God, what if they didn't! Elsa reads, but there's only so much you can get from books…unless we have _those_ book in the library. Wait…do we? No, stay on track. I have to talk to her! I have—_

"Oh my God, Revel!?" Anna said jumping out of the alcove, body moving on its own accord, and sufficiently scared a blast of ice out of her sister which she remarkably avoided. "Of all the people in our kingdom, Revel!?"

Elsa clutched her chest, left arm thrown out to keep her balance and to keep her ice from further frosting the hallway. "Oh my sweet God, Anna! What's wrong with you?"

_Damn, I thought I had more time,_ Elsa cursed silently.

"Me? _Me?!_ I'm not the one," Anna realized she was shouting and immediately lowered her voice to a harsh whisper, "I'm not the one grinding with our guard Captain in the _library_!"

Anna saw her sister's face flush a brilliant red, and Elsa turned away, heading towards her room. "We're not having this conversation, Anna."

"Like hell we're not! When did this become a thing? When did _you_ become interested in…anyone?!"

"It…we…Anna, seriously, this isn't the time," Elsa stammered as she hurried to her room, face and neck on fire with the heat of her flush.

"Elsa, I'm your _sister_. Shouldn't I have been— I don't know— told about you possibly having feeling for someone? I mean, this is huge! This changes so much. No wonder you've been acting strangely! I should have put two and two together when I watched the two of you dance at the Yule Ball. He's been courting you—"

"No he hasn't—"

"And you seemed so infatuated with him."

"I'm not _infatuated_ with anyone—"

"How long have you two been together? And I don't mean together but together _together. _Wait…wait…was that your first time!? Did Mother and Father talk to you about the 'snake and the cave'?"

Elsa spun on her sister, her face livid with embarrassment. "That's not something I want or will ever discuss with you Anna!"

"Ok, ok, I was just asking. I mean, they had it with me, but since I never saw you, I didn't know if that knowledge was open to you."

The queen groaned and shouldered open her door with Anna close on her heels, prattling on with a rapid fire barrage of questions. Too flustered to answer most of them as quickly as her sister threw them at her, and head still spinning from her encounter with the Captain, Elsa hardly heard a word her sister was saying until Anna paused for breath and asked the one question that brought the queen's warm, albeit embarrassed, afterglow crashing back to earth.

"But why him? The two of you can never be together. He's not a prince."

"I…what?" Elsa tuned towards her sister. The realization of what Anna had just said hit the queen like a fist in the gut and she almost staggered backwards, a gust of arctic wind encircling her. Anna seemed to realize what she'd said as well as she watched her sister's face fall like a stone through water and immediately raised her hands as if to catch her.

"Wait, wait that came out wrong. I didn't mean…that is, I'm sure you can… you did it with Kristoff. I'm sure it wouldn't be…ah hell," Anna scrubbed her face with her hands and groaned. Why was she so good at putting her foot in her mouth?

"No, I know what you meant," Elsa said with a little more bite to her voice than she intended. "And no, I can't do for him what I did for Kristoff. As you so bluntly put it, Queens can't wed anyone but princes."

Just saying the words out loud hurt, and the pain she felt arching across her chest was unlike anything she'd previously felt. Elsa crossed her arms over her chest, ice crept into her fingertips as she turned away from her sister, embarrassed and ashamed of being caught, of her choices up to this point, of her inability to separate herself from the entangling and confusing feelings she had towards Revel.

_What was I thinking? Why did I let myself get caught up? Why did I have to fall in love?_

_ Because that's what humans do,_ Elsa heard Saja's voice brush against the back of her thoughts and jerked in surprise. _We are beings who crave love and being loved. It's our very nature, and not something that can be pushed aside or smothered under other emotions._

"Elsa, please, I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that. Please," the princess reached for her sister and grabbed ahold of her upper arm, expecting Elsa to pull away, but the queen surprised her and suddenly Anna was wrapped in a powerful hug. Startled, she stiffened for a moment before melting into her sister's embrace, squeezing as hard as she could.

"I have a knack for putting my foot in my mouth. I'm sorry," Anna mumbled into her sister's shoulder.

"I'm so confused, Anna. You're right, I can't ever be with him, so what do I do with these feelings?"

"Oh, Elsa," Anna sighed and squeezed her tightly again before pulling back. "Come on, let's sit on the bed."

Elsa allowed herself to be pulled towards her bed and sat down heavily on the edge, folding her hands in her lap. She felt uneasy having this talk with Anna; after all, wasn't she the older sister? Wasn't it her responsibility to be passing on these pearls of wisdom and not the other way around?

_No, it should be Mother having this conversation with me,_ Elsa thought sadly and glanced at the small painting of her parents she kept above her fireplace. _Why did you have to go so soon, Mamma? I have so many questions._

Anna followed her sister's line of sight and felt a weight settle in her chest. "I know Mamma should be having this talk with you and not me, but I hope I can help. Even if it's only a little bit."

Elsa took her sister's hands in her and gave her a faint, teasing smile. "Go ahead. Impart your wisdom upon me, oh mighty Love Expert."

"I think the most important thing here is: do you love him?" Anna asked squeezing her sister's hands.

Elsa was quiet for a long time, her eyes lost in thought. "I…I don't know. I don't know how to differentiate the love I have for you and Kristoff and Olaf and everyone else in this castle against what I feel towards him."

"Do you want to have sex with all of us?"

It was such a straight faced question, Elsa thought Anna was being serious until she saw the edges of her lips curl up and playfully pushed her.

"_No_, I do not. So, just because I want to…be with him…in that way—"

"It's called sex, dear sister. Let's not beat around the bush."

"Fine. Just because I want to have sex with him, does that mean I love him?"

"It's a start to knowing for sure, but there are other, more complicated things that go on in the heart that tell us we're in love. I first realized I was in love with Kristoff when he came back for me during the whiteout blizzard. I didn't necessarily want to…jump him…at the time, but I realized I had deeper feelings for him than I previously thought. As time wore on, and we got to know each other more, we both discovered we had similar likes and dislikes, had similar ways of thinking. Sure, there were plenty of things we disagreed on, and we had our fair share of fights—"

"I remember hearing those," Elsa said with a half-smile.

"Yeah, they could get pretty heated at times. But regardless, I realized that, the more time I spent with him and the more we got to know each other, the more I couldn't imagine my life without him. He was my best friend, aside from you, of course."

"I couldn't be there all the time…"

"You have your duties as queen. I knew that and still know it, but he was my best friend and confidant. It also didn't help that he was a tremendously amazing kisser."

Elsa gave her sister a sidelong glance. "He was the first man who kissed you; how can you say he's an amazing anything without having prior knowledge?"

"How does Revel kiss?" Anna asked with a smug grin that only grew when her sister looked away, red faced.

"He kisses fine…" Elsa mumbled.

"Point for Anna," the princess said making a check sign in the air in front of her. "Anyway, just thinking the same way as someone doesn't mean you're in love with them. I think the most important thing is the ability to share."

"Share?" Elsa asked incredulously. "Share what…exactly?"

"Saliva and bodily fluids, of course." Elsa gave her sister a confused look then swung the closest pillow she could reach at Anna. The princess giggled and deflected the blow with her forearm, ginning, before continuing. "Well yeah, share. You share your dreams, your fears, your scars. You laugh with them and cry with them. You enjoy the quiet moments and have a complete conversation without ever saying a word. I've heard its vulnerability that makes the relationship into something more than just a friendship, and I think whoever said that was right. Am…am I making any sense?"

Elsa took a deep breath and let it out in a gusty sigh. "A little. What you're saying makes sense, I just don't know how to judge or measure these things."

"It's different for everyone. What worked for me and Kristoff might not work for you and Revel, but maybe that's a good thing!" Anna said seeing the sad and confused look on her sister's face. "Maybe this will give you a chance to learn something new about yourself and allow you to confide in something that isn't me. Not that I mind you doing that, by the way. It's just nice getting a second opinion or sharing things with someone who is separate from the rest of us."

"Or I could fall flat on my face," the queen said putting her face in her hands.

"We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves back up. You remember who told me that?"

"I did," Elsa replied with a meek smile. "Thank you, Anna. For trying at least, but you're right. I think I have to figure this out on my own."

Anna returned her sister's smile and opened her mouth to say something when a sudden thought struck her and she shot off the bed. "Tea! You need tea!"

"What? Anna, I'm not thirsty."

"No, not _that_ kind of tea. You need…you need…" The princess made a face somewhere between embarrassment and bemusement that instantly made her sister wary.

"Anna, what are you talking about?"

"You need no-accidental-babies tea." Suddenly flushing a brilliant red, Anna looked at her feet and shuffled them like a child caught doing something they shouldn't. "Gerda gave me some when Kristoff and I started seriously courting. Said I had to drink it after every…'encounter'."

The implications of what Anna was admitting to would have upset the queen had she not done the same thing with Revel not a half hour ago in the library. Breathing another sigh, Elsa nodded. Truth be told, she was grateful her sister had said something about the risk of conception. It had never, and probably wouldn't have, crossed her mind until the consequences appeared nine months later, and _that_ was a scandal she knew her kingdom and reputation would not recover from. And somehow that made her a bit angry. She could ice her entire kingdom and nearly lock it in an eternal winter and her people would eventually, at times reluctantly, forgive her. But God on high forbid an unwed queen become with child. God also forbid she find love in a man who wasn't royalty. Pushing aside her irksome thoughts, Elsa tried to focus on what her sister was telling her about the no-accidental-babies tea but couldn't get her mind off her promise to Revel and what their encounter tonight could lead to.

* * *

><p>The afternoon had slipped away without him noticing, the sun crawling lazily across the sky. Now the ball of fire had sunk below the horizon, the last of the lavenders and pinks bleeding out of the sky as darkness descended upon Arendelle. Revel sat down at his small square table for the fifth time in ten minutes and anxiously drummed his fingers against the smooth wood. He'd already worn his feet raw with pacing the length of his quarters, and if he didn't find something to get his mind off what had happened that afternoon, he was liable to punch something. Not out of anger but just as a way to rid himself of the overflow of raw energy sparking under his skin.<p>

_What was I thinking! No, that's the problem, I hadn't been thinking. I pushed too hard; let myself get too caught up in the moment. Jesus, Revel, what the hell is wrong with you? The queen? Of all the people in Arendelle, I had to make a move on the queen. Now look what's happened! I've…I've…_

He knew what had happened, what had changed between them in the forge-fire heat of passion and lust. The Captain had felt her surrender body and mind, felt Elsa's fears and insecurities fall away, and he had, in turn, brought down his own walls and allowed himself to believe that what they were sharing was, in essence, a raw kind of love. Never had anything in his life felt so right, but it couldn't have been more wrong. Revel could love her, he _did_ love her, loved her more than he realized, but there were obstacles between them, and so much she couldn't know about him.

_Would she understand about my past? Would she accept me?_

Revel glanced at his fireplace and the single discolored stone on the back wall, the usual tumble of battle armor butterflies that accompanied thoughts of the queen suddenly replaced with coiling snakes of dread and uncertainty. He swallowed hard and looked away.

_No, she wouldn't understand, and I won't burden her with the knowledge. _

Releasing a heavy sigh, he put his head down on the table and felt the weight of his years pressing down on his shoulders. Revel wasn't a day over thirty, older than most of the guards under his command, but he was young in the kingdom's eyes. Still, there were times when his years on earth, the years he'd spent running from his past, caught up to him and he felt three times his age.

"Father, what should I do," the Captain mumbled, conjuring the image of his late father into his conscious thought. "I'm in love with a woman I know I can never have, and who has the power to tear everything away from me. What should I do? What would _you_ do?"

Revel's father had always known what to do when his middle child was in crisis. Sometimes they'd go riding, though Revel wasn't fond of horses, and the beasts seemed to return his dislike for them with their own brand of contempt. Sometimes the brothers would sit in the kitchen while his father cooked for them; a rare occurrence since Gregor had servants to do his cooking for him. Revel could remember sitting next to the hearth or at the servant's table while his father pulled ingredients out of the cupboard and arranged them carefully in front of his son. He'd explain what each one was and what it would do to the dish he was preparing. That had been the start of Revel's love affair with cooking, and suddenly he knew what he could do to keep his hands busy.

An hour later, he heard the door to the training chamber open and stopped quartering the potatoes on his table, knife hovering over his work. Revel listened, heart in his throat, and nearly jumped out of his skin when someone knocked gently on his room door. Wiping his hands clean on his pants, he slowly opened the door, arranging his face in a bright smile that he hoped hid is utter trepidation.

"Good evening, Elsa."

The queen, wrapped in her customary black cloak, gave him a sheepish smile and nodded. "Good evening, Revel."

It didn't occur to him the two were standing in an awkward silence, her at his doorstep and him holding the door handle like a man about to fall off a ledge, until she cleared her throat nervously.

"Is this a bad time? I could—"

"No, forgive me. I lost my train of thought. Come in," he said stepping aside and allowing her to enter. The Captain took her cloak and hung it on a peg before bolting door shut behind him for good measure.

_Even if nothing happens, privacy is paramount._

Revel turned and saw Elsa examining the produce on his table and the pot simmering over a cheery yellow fire. She was wearing one of her sparing outfits; burgundy fencer's top, light cloth vest, black pants and boots. Her hair was braided in her customary style and slung over her shoulder, the platinum standing in stark contrast to the dark cloth of her top.

"Have you eaten yet?" Revel asked motioning towards the cooking pot.

"I had a little to eat a few hours ago with Anna. What are you cooking?"

"There's a thin stew boiling in the pot that I intend to thicken up with some potatoes, beef stock, and a few chunks of venison. I had also hoped to sear a few deer fillets with the spring onions and mushrooms I had stashed in my cupboard. Are you partial to deer meat?" Revel asked conversationally as he walked around the table and scooped up the diced potatoes. It was comforting having something to do that took his mind off the awkwardness.

_I'd like to know where that confident man in the library went, because I feel_ _like if I open my mouth I'm going to shove my foot into it._

He carefully placed the potatoes into the pot, poured in half of a clay jar of cooled beef stock, and gave the stew a stir before tossing in the thin strips of chilled deer meat he'd been saving in his private cooler for a special occasion. Meat wasn't a rarity in Arendelle. Since the kingdom rested at the edge of a fjord, there was always fresh fish delivered to the wharf vendors daily. Venison, however, was something that rarely came into town unless a special request was made or someone went and hunted it for themselves. Revel had done the latter, taking an extra day to hike into the mountains long before winter locked Arendelle in ice and snow.

"I've not had venison in a very long time," Elsa said, taking a seat in the chair next to the fire and watching the Captain intently as he pulled a sizzling hot frying pan out of the bed of coals and gently set it on a cooling rock. It was a little known fact that Elsa found cooking fascinating. She'd never been brave enough to venture into the kitchens and ask Gerda for a lesson, she wasn't sure how her powers would react to fire, but there were many nights the queen would sit in the kitchen and watch the service matron and her assistants cook the evening meal, memorizing their movements and the ingredients that went into each individual dish.

"Wouldn't it be easier to sear the fillets if there was a little oil in the pan?" Elsa asked before she realized she'd spoken. She immediately chastened herself for opening her mouth and bit into her bottom lip to keep from saying more.

Revel turned to her and cocked an eyebrow, a smile spreading across his face. "I didn't take you for someone who cooked."

"I don't, I've just watched my kitchen staff enough to know that the meat will stick to the pan and burn if there isn't any oil in it," she said by way of explanation.

"Well, it appears your memory has come to the rescue. That would be a better idea, thank you."

The Captain doused the pan with a thin layer of oil before adding the thick piece of venison. A thin veil of smoke rose from the pan as the rich smell of cooking meat filled the chamber. Elsa closed her eyes and breathed deeply, unsure why the smell was so soothing. Maybe it was primal, something that harked back to a time long before man began living in walled cities and could grow their own crops and raise their own livestock. Maybe it was because her father used to smell like wood smoke and cooking meat whenever he returned for a hunting venture. For whatever the reason, the queen felt the tension in her back and shoulder blades ease enough that she didn't have to sit ramrod straight.

"Where did you learn to cook?" she asked after a few quiet heartbeats.

"My father taught me when I was young. On days when my lessons were rough, or I was just having an off day, he'd take me into the kitchen and cook me something. When I got older, he began teaching me different recipes. It was more of a luxury when I was younger, but after leaving home, I had to be able to feed myself. Especially when I couldn't afford to buy food." Revel grabbed a set of tongs next to the fire and gently moved the searing fillet back and forth on the pan to make sure the skin wasn't sticking.

"During your travels, you mean?" Elsa said leaning her elbows against the table. Again she was presented with a rare opportunity to peer into Revel's past and learn a little more about the man she'd found herself falling in love with.

_Is it love or something else? I guess only time will tell._

"Yes. That's also when I learned how to hunt. Well, I say learned. I was taught by fur traders in Finland. We'd agreed on a…mutual trade agreement that, if I could help get them access to a prominent Duke's land, they would teach me how to hunt properly."

Elsa sat back and frowned. "You worked for poachers?"

"I'm not happy about some of my life choices, and poaching is hardly the worst I did when I was younger, but yes, I worked with poachers for a few seasons," Revel said making certain his eyes remained fixed on what he was cooking. "There weren't bad men, and the Duke who's lands they were hunting on was a tyrannical man who wanted to keep the best meat and fur for himself. Hard to make a living in a hamlet, or to simply live, where the only meat is provided by the Duke and he charges an exorbitant amount for grisly cuts I wouldn't even feed a dog. I was happy to help the people of the hamlet while learning a valuable life skill. A fair trade in my book."

"Theft is theft, but I can see your reasoning," Elsa said once again leaning on the table.

"A difference of opinion; though I can assure you my record here in Arendelle is clean," Revel said flashing her a sly smile that made the queen's face flush.

"I might have to double check that," Elsa replied with a devious smile of her own.

Seeing her smile, and make light of one of the sordid moments of his past, put Revel's mind at ease for the moment, and he relaxed. He still felt like a rabbit staring down a wolf whenever he looked at her, but his previously felt anxiety was quickly melting away as he realized that very little had changed between them. Sure, they had shared a powerfully intimate moment only hours ago, their first intimate encounter ever, but Elsa didn't seem any different for it.

_Maybe that's just a mask,_ he thought watching her out of the corner of his eye. _Maybe she's feeling as confused and befuddled as I am; she's just better at hiding it. So how do you break the ice?_

The thought of ice breaking made him laugh and blush at the same time, and the queen gave him a queer look.

"Something wrong?"

"No, it was just a humorous thought." Then an idea struck him. "Elsa, would you like to learn how to cook?"

"I'm not sure I'd be any good at it," she said, folding her hands in her lap.

"You never know unless you try. Come on, I'll show you how to thicken a stew and sear a fillet."

Before she could object, Revel walked around the table and pulled her to her feet. He positioned her in front of the simmering pot over the flames and handed her a long spoon with holes in the belly.

"Fish out a few potatoes and check to see if they're done," he said flipping the venison fillet and setting the pan back down on the bed of embers.

"How do you know if they're done?" Elsa asked swirling the spoon in the stew as she attempted to wrangle a wayward potato that bobbed to the surface.

"Use the fork next to you. If the prongs slide easily into the skin, it's done. If there's resistance, let them cook a little longer."

Elsa did as she was told and checked. Not quite soft enough to qualify as done, so she put the vegetable back into the pot and let them simmer for a little longer. Meanwhile, Revel set aside one finished fillet and pulled another out of his cooler at the foot of his bed.

"I'm going to show you how to sear this," he said setting the piece of meat down on a piece of butcher paper.

"Are you sure fire and ice can mix?" Elsa asked uneasily. She'd never experienced being burned, not by fire anyway, but the memory of the pain in her hands the night after receiving word of her parent's death at sea was still a sharp reminder of how much she could hurt.

Revel saw her unease and gently took her hand in his, kissing her knuckles. "Fire and ice are both intense elements."

_Olaf would say putting them together just makes sense_, Elsa thought with a smile.

"I won't let you get burned," Revel finished

Reluctantly, the queen moved in front of the pan and reached for the handle, but Revel stopped her before she could wrap her hand around the long piece of metal.

"You shouldn't grab any metal, especially metal buried in hot coals, without protecting your hand first. I know your magic is strong, but let's not take any chances."

"But you picked it up bare handed," Elsa said giving him a quizzical look. In response to her reply, Revel lifted his gloved right hand and wiggled his fingers.

"Cooking mitt," he said with a self-satisfied grin.

Elsa glowered at him and pursed her lips, but said nothing as she turned towards the fire, encased her hand in shimmering ice, and grabbed hold of the pan. Strangely, she could feel the heat from the metal radiating against her palm, but it was a distant sensation and completely painless. Small wisps of steam rose from her hand as she moved the pan onto the hot rock Revel had used to help cook the first fillet.

"Alright, point taken," he said with a sigh and smiled as he moved behind her to set the fillet on into the pan. He felt her stiffen but ignored it. "The pan is a lot hotter now, so this piece of meat won't take too long to cook. How do you prefer your meat?"

"I…what?" Elsa stammered as she returned from a string of unconscious thoughts and turned to look at him wide eyed.

"Cooked, Elsa. How do you like your meat cooked. Bloody, somewhat blood, a little pink, no pink? Why, what did _you _ think I meant?"

"Make no mistake, I will hit you with this frying pan," Elsa said seeing the mischievous grin on his face.

"Then you would be assaulting me with the official weapon of Corona."

Elsa snorted with laughter. It was true. Corona did have a healthy love for frying pans. Her cousin Rapunzel had even gifted Anna with an ornate set for her wedding. Gerda refused to use them, saying they were too beautiful to use for cooking, and had them hung in the kitchen like a work of art.

"Better a frying pan to the head than a knee to the crotch."

Revel chuckled and leaned in close, arms snaking around her waist as his head came to rest on her shoulder. He was close enough to feel the coolness of her skin and smell the rich peppermint and frost in her platinum hair. Elsa shivered at his closeness.

"You've already put an arrow through my heart, so what's an extra whack to the side of the head with a frying pan."

This time, when he felt Elsa go rigid, he felt a burst of arctic air wash over him, a sure sign that something was wrong. Startled, he stepped to the side and turned her by her shoulders so he could see her in the firelight. Some of the color had drained from her face, and her eyes were as wide as saucers.

"Elsa, what's wrong? Did you get burned?"

"It…it's nothing," she said looking away from him and suppressing a shudder.

"No, don't do that. Did I do something wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," she said taking a breath and trying to draw her magic back into her body so she didn't accidentally ice the Captain's room. The warmth of the fire on her left side and his warm hands on her shoulders relaxed her enough to reign in her magic.

"What you said about an arrow piercing your chest…it just reminded me of a vivid nightmare I had a few days ago, that's all.

_A nightmare about me,_ he wanted to ask but kept himself from saying anything. Instead, he wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't know, so why are you sorry?"

"Because you seemed really scared just now," Revel said.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. It was just a dream. You should be paying more attention to your—"

Elsa stopped when Revel leaned down and kissed her, and felt her world grind to an abrupt halt, heat spreading across her body with startling quickness. She felt his warm hand cup the back of her neck and sighed contentedly, relaxing into his arms. It wasn't a long embrace, and certainly not as forceful or passion charged as their first encounter in the library, but sensuality could be just as powerful as passion, if not more so. Passion tended to burn hot and fast while sensuality could burn slowly for an eternity as an insatiable hunger.

Revel broke away and leaned back to look down at her, pleased to see she was as flushed as he was. She looked at him as if with new eyes, hand pressed against his chest directly over his heart. He could see the uncertainty and fear that had once stretched like a chasm before them closing as she surrendered to some unspoken decision. He felt her softening, her once stiff back and shoulder muscles loosening as her regal posture slipped. Elsa nervously laughed and tucked a wayward strand of hair back behind her ear, a gesture he found absolutely adorable.

"Shouldn't we…finish cooking your dinner?"

An unspoken admission of what was building between them, unspoken consent. Revel could read between the lines as much as she could and felt his body reacting in a most familiar and pleasurable way.

"See," the Captain said reaching over to remove the pan from the hot rock and push the stew pot away from the fire, "that's one of the beauties of cooking. You can always come back to it."

Gently, he backed the queen against the edge of his bed and pushed her onto the soft mattress, straddling her left leg as he continued to probe her mouth with his tongue. Elsa moaned and ground her hips against his thigh which pressed into her groin, tightening her legs around him as a sweet ache formed in her abdomen and spread through her body. Revel could feel her heat through the layers of his pants and stifled a growl as he tugged her fencer's top free from where she'd tucked it into her breeches, lifting it up and over her head with a swift tug. The queen fell back against the bed, bare from the waist up, and he took a moment to take in her pale, arctic beauty. She was starlight and fresh fallen snow made flesh, skin glistening with prickles of sweat as her chest rose and fell excitedly. It was only when he shifted to the right, the firelight falling across her shoulders, that he caught sight of the dark bruise on her left shoulder and froze, all thoughts of a carnal encounter fading for the moment.

"Elsa, what happened?" he said pulling her up by her wrist. When he touched the mark it felt like marble, cool and firm under his fingers. The queen reached up and tentatively touched the brand, her eyes downcast.

"It happened when I fainted in my room a few days ago. I don't know how, but I must have grabbed ahold of my shoulder, and my magic must have left a mark." It was startling how easily the lie came to her lips, and she felt a surge of guilt for not telling Revel the truth. But how could she? The truth was stranger than the fiction she'd just told him, and she didn't know how he'd take to the knowledge that it had been a visit from her ancient ancestor that had left her marked with a brand.

Revel could sense she wasn't telling him the whole truth, and a part of him seethed at the deceit. What wasn't she telling him? Had this been caused by another person? Had she been grabbed by someone? The idea of anyone laying a hand on his queen put a volcanic fire in his blood. To leave a bruise that deep and detailed they would have had to be immensely strong. Revel didn't realize he'd been growling as he stared at the mark until Elsa's cool hand touched the side of his face and brought him back from the dark thoughts swirling in his mind.

"Revel, stop. I'm alright. It's just a bruise. Believe me, it's better now than it was."

"And your magic did this?"

Elsa hesitated for a second, and it was all the confirmation he needed to know she was lying. "Apparently there are things about my magic that I don't know. Please, don't be angry. Not…not now."

The Captain sighed and gently touched the mark again. Perhaps she wasn't telling him the exact truth, but he didn't sense any fear under her words, so she wasn't being threatened by an outside source. Maybe this was an effect of her magic, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was lying to him.

_She has her secrets, and I have mine. It's only fair. As long as she's safe, that's all that matters._

Slowly, he bent down and kissed the mark, surprised when a spark of power jumped from the bruise and spread across his lips, numbing them momentarily. A faint buzzing washed across his skin like hundreds of dragonflies had just flown by and barely touched him with their wings, but it was gone before he realized what had happened. Pushing the questions from his mind, the Captain felt a familiar need start to fill him again like molten metal pouring into a crucible. He shifted so that Elsa was straddling him, her bare chest flush with his, and began gently nibbling on her neck while his fingers traced her spine, ringing halting gasps from her.

Elsa instinctively wrapped her arms around him, returning his affections with kisses of her own, her mouth leaving lines of frost along the underside of his jaw, down his neck and across his chest. Her fingers trailed frost in their wake causing Revel to buck into her and grind the unyielding hardness of his erection into her groin. She knew he wanted to rip the fabric from her body, could feel him tense and shake every time she rolled her hips teasingly against his arousal, but he held back for whatever reason the queen couldn't fathom. At last it seemed her torment had become too much. With a throaty growl, Revel pushed off the bed with his feet and rolled on top of Elsa, his unnatural green eyes glinting like gems in the firelight.

Leaning back, Revel smoothed his hands along the creamy white skin of her flat stomach, following the plane of her muscles between her breasts and across her chest, waking waves of goosebumps and lines of volcanic heat as he went. He could feel her pulse quickening as he moved over her; the drum of her heart matched the tempo of his almost perfectly. When his lips found the hollow of her throat, Elsa let out a ragged sigh, turning her head to the side and raked her fingers through his thick hair and down across his broad shoulders. The Captain worked his way down, kissing and licking, savoring her clean, wintery taste as if it were a fine wine. His tongue brushed against the sensitive bud of her nipple before his mouth closed in around it. Elsa arched into the curve of him like the drawn belly of a bow, her gasps turning into faint cries.

He teased her almost relentlessly, mouth moving from one breast to the other before kissing lines of fire up her chest and neck before alighting back on her lips with an almost bruising force. The queen twisted under his weight, body rolling and bucking, building friction against him as instinct took control and she began to lose herself to the burning desire banking inside her. When Revel's hand slid slowly down her stomach again, she shook in response and bit her bottom lip to keep from moaning; when his fingers curled into warm wetness between her legs it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming and arch off the bed.

"Revel…" she husked as he continued to work inside of her, each plunge pushing her farther towards the edge, her plaintive cries becoming more and more insistent. "Please," she panted into his shoulder, breathing heavily in order to catch her breath. Elsa wanted to say more, to command, to plead, to cry out for him to take her as they'd done earlier that afternoon, but her mouth was having trouble forming the words her brain was shouting.

Revel ignored her cries and continued his sweet torment, determined to drive her to the edge before allowing himself to enter…though he didn't know how much longer he could hold off, the tightness in his pants almost to the point of painful. The moment her hand clamped around his upper arm, fingertips crackling with blue power, was the moment her body rose off the bed as fire and electricity erupted in her lower abdomen and raced through her body. Her cries reached a desperate pitch, hands grabbing fistfuls of sheets, before she collapsed back into the mattress gasping for breath.

As she lay panting, Revel all but ripped off his breeches and did the same with the queen's, exposing her full nakedness to the cool air of the room. If she felt it she didn't stir, eyes half closed as she rode the wave of electricity sparking through her veins. It only took a few teasing kisses to her inner thigh to bring her back round, and she stared at him with primal eyes that made his skin prickle. Positioning himself again, Revel slid a hand under her buttocks, lifting her and slowly sliding in, body trembling with overwhelming pleasure as he sheathed himself entirely. Unlike before, there was no jagged pain and no tearing. Elsa could still feel areas of sharp sensitivity, but those were quickly being overridden as the Captain began his slow, methodical grinding.

They rode together in perfect synchronization, bodies becoming one as the nova that had burned between them finally hit the point of eruption. Her hips rose to accommodate his deep thrusts, her head thrown back as gasp after ragged gasp was pulled from her lungs. Hunched like a predator, Revel sought and found her mouth, kissing it with a desperation that matched the roll of his hips. Elsa's nails raked red lines of icy fire down his back, her need for climax almost too much to endure: the rigidity of Revel inside her driving her beyond the point of madness. Lights danced before her eyes, and flakes of snow drifted from the ceiling above, dissipating before they ever touched the lovers. When at last she thought she could take no more, the dam broke under the weight of her need and an explosion of white and blue brought her off the mattress with an ecstatic scream. Moments later, Revel shuddered to a finish, body tense as a bow string, as he emptied himself, euphoria engulfing him entirely.

Bliss followed the tumultuous storm the two had weathered, both lovers collapsing in a tangle of limbs, sweat, and contentedness. Revel had the foresight to pull his comforter over them before wrapping Elsa in his arms and pulling her close, never wanting to let her go. Elsa, too spent to form proper words, let alone proper thoughts, shifted back into his comforting warmth. There was peace to be found here: perhaps the truest, purest peace she had felt in years. Here she was safe. Here nothing could touch her, and she let herself fall into the certainty of protection and acceptance.

A sudden breath of cool wind touched her face and she wrinkled her nose at the familiar smell of salt and damp earth. Had Revel left his window open? No, that couldn't be right. It was late February, and there were no semi-warm breezes blowing in from anywhere for at least another month. Confused, Elsa cracked open her eyes and gasped. She wasn't in Revel's room any longer, or in Arendelle for that matter.

* * *

><p>She stood at the top of an imposing cliff face overlooking a fjord that looked eerily similar to hers. She spotted an island just off the water: a large piece of land that could easily hold a castle if one was ever built. Across the water, the walls of the fjord climbed into heavens set aflame by the sunset: purple, red, and pink clouds drifting lazily across a cobalt sky. Turning slowly, Elsa felt the cool wind, rich with the scent of the sea and tilled earth, brush against her face one more time and closed her eyes. Wherever she was, whether this was Arendelle before its founding or an eerie premonition of things to come, the queen somehow knew she would find no answers standing on the cliff's edge. So she began climbing the steep incline behind her, taking one step at a time until she reached the top and the woman waiting for her there.<p>

Saja sat on a low, gray boulder overlooking a sweeping valley that had been hidden behind the cliff walls, buffeted by gusts of wind that rolled up the incline. She wore the same strange outfit of wolf fur, leather, and chainmail; wore her hair in the same micro braided fashion with bits of black chainmail woven into the braids that clinked together each time the wind picked up a strand and moved it around. The woman's back was to the queen, but she seemed to sense the approaching monarch and turned ever so slightly, azure eyes flashing in the fading sunlight.

"This is a beautiful overlook," Elsa said as she cautiously approached. She knew this was a dream, but her last encounter with her ancestor while dreaming had left her with an icy brand on her shoulder and two days of lost time.

"It's funny you would call it that since this is _your_ overlook."

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Is this not the place where you buried your parents?" Saja asked as she motioned to the area around her.

Elsa looked around, taking in every rock and tree and sweeping expanse of land with a critical eyes. Yes, now that she actually focused on her surroundings, this did look familiar. If she concentrated, she could envision Arendelle kingdom sprawled out in the valley below, hundreds of homes clustered together in a semi-chaotic snarl that reached all the way to the water's edge.

"Is this Arendelle before its founding?"

"Yes," Saja said with a slight nod. "Even great kingdoms have small beginnings. There is a village on the other side of the rise at the base of the mountains. In your time, it no longer exists, but that was the seed to your kingdom so many hundreds of years ago."

"Was that where you were from?" Elsa asked coming to stand next to the woman. She heard Saja laugh, a husky rumble that suggested the Frost Born didn't laugh very often.

"No, my birth village is many miles from here by sea."

Arms crossed over her chest, Elsa remained quiet for some time, letting the wind spiral around her and pull at the fabric of her modest green dress. After what seemed hours of silence, the queen gathered enough courage to ask the question that had bothered her since she'd arrived in this strange dream land.

"Why did you bring me here, Saja?"

"I thought it would be more comfortable for you to be out in the open air and not in the room with your sleeping lover. Our last encounter indoors was…poorly planned. There is much I would like to speak to you about, but so little time to do so."

"May I sit?" Elsa motioned to a spot next to Saja, and the woman nodded.

"Of course."

Elsa scooted in next to her ancestor and rested her elbows on her knees, fingers knitted together. "Are you here to be my guide?"

Saja cracked a half grin. "I didn't think someone who followed the teachings of the White Christ believed in spirit guides."

Elsa stiffened and frowned. "Looks can be deceiving, and I never proclaimed any such loyalty. There are traditions that are followed in my kingdom, traditions I am obligated to follow, but not everyone who lives under the Catholic banner is Catholic."

"I sense fire mixing with ice inside you," Saja chuckled again. "Perhaps I misjudged you, so let me answer your question plainly. Yes, I am here as a guide, though whether or not I'm a spiritual one is entirely up to you."

"Meaning?"

"There is spirituality in our ice and the way we use it. We Frost Born are connected to the earth as firmly as a tree is anchored in deep soil by its roots, and with each magical weave we cast we are drawn closer and closer to our terrestrial mother. I will show you what you can truly do with your magic. There is beauty in it, to be sure, but where there is sunlight there is always darkness. Our magic can be a terrible thing to behold."

"I've seen what my magic can do to people," Elsa said quietly as the image of her sister, frozen solid in aquamarine ice flashed inside her mind.

Saja sighed and leaned into the wind, eyes closed as she silently enjoyed the gusty fingers trailing through her hair. After a moment she looked down at her booted feet. "Ah yes, you've seen that it has the capability to kill, but your sister could have suffered a fate worse than death had you allowed it."

"I…I'm not sure I want to hear this."

"It is a facet of your power, Elsa. Tell me this," the woman turned so she was facing the queen, elbows resting on her knees, "do you understand the bond you have with your ice and that it is strengthened by the force of your will?"

"Revel calls it will-ice," Elsa answered softly, arms snaking around her waist.

"A fitting name. All the ice you conjure, even the smallest snowflake, is a part of you and submits to your will. You move it, mold it, and command it where to go, and it goes without question. You harden it with your will into an unbreakable force, into a blade so sharp it can pierce stone. You can even shape it into living beings."

Something suddenly streaked out of the sky, and Elsa gave a tiny squeak of surprise when a hawk alighted on Saja's extended left arm. For half a heartbeat, she thought the animal was flesh and blood until she looked closer and realized with a start that the hawk was made entirely out of ice that flashed and winked like lightning whenever the bird shifted. Soft feathers, the same blue gray color of the sky at dawn, fluffed and flattened as the ice bird adjusted itself on its mistress's arm, staring at the queen with a weird kind of sharp intelligence behind its azure eyes. It tilted its head and snapped its semi-transparent, aquamarine beak before letting out a piercing shriek.

"This is Himmelen," Saja said by way of introduction with a fond smile.

"He's beautiful," Elsa whispered, her eyes wide with wonder. She understood that sentient life could be made with her ice, she'd made Olaf and Marshmallow, but, even when creating her tiny ice sculptures, she'd never been able to understand how she'd given life to two snow beings. Seeing Himmelen perched on Saja's arm was a sharp reminder that she had a long way to go before she fully understood the depth of her magic.

"May I?" the queen asked extending her arm.

Saja tilted her head towards the hawk who in turn did the same. It appeared something passed between them, an unspoken conversation privy only to the two of them, before the woman nodded and turned back to the queen.

"Shield your arm in ice. His talons are sharp."

Elsa did just that, sleeveing her forearm in ice before extending it toward the hawk. The bird of prey shrieked at her, hopped to the end of Saja's arm, then bounced onto Elsa's with a weighty click. The queen could feel the heaviness of the creature, could feel it shift and move as it sidled up her arm and came to rest just below her elbow. For a silent moment the two appraised one another before Hammelen shook himself contentedly, his feathers fluffing in a spray of fine silver powder, before beginning the tedious process of pruning.

"You made him?"

"He is my eyes when flying. I can connect with him and see what he sees."

"Can I do that with Olaf and Marshmallow?"

"The golem and snow-being you created? Yes, you can. Anything you've created with your magic you can connect with when your mind is in proper alignment. This is why I say your sister could have suffered a fate worse than death had you allowed it. She became consumed by your ice, killed by its power, but it was still _your_ magic. Had you willed it, you could have…resurrected her…in a fashion."

Elsa felt the blood drain from her face, and she realized she was shaking only when Himmelen gave a squawk of discontent and shifted on her arm. The first thing that popped into her head was necromancy, and it made her shudder with dread. The reanimation of the dead through means of nefarious magic was not only taboo, it was forbidden and punishable by death.

"You could have summoned Anna back to life," Saja continued, "but the frozen thing on the fjord would not have been your sister. It would have walked like her and talked like her, but she would have only been a puppet controlled by your will to keep her alive."

"Please stop talking about this," Elsa said feeling bile rise into the back of her throat. She didn't even want to entertain the horrific idea of what Saja was describing. Almost losing Anna had been bad enough, but turning her dead sister into an ice puppet, a walking wraith, put a clawing fear in her stomach.

"As I said, there is a dark side to our magic that is oftentimes masked by its beauty."

Elsa could sense something unsaid under Saja's words and turned to look at the woman. Had she tried the same thing? Had her magic reanimated the corpse of someone she knew, a loved one perhaps? The queen didn't want to ask, didn't want to dwell on the sickening subject. Instead, she focused on something else that had been on her mind since her first encounter with the Frost Born.

"Saja, why are both of your arms encased in ice?"

Saja shifted uncomfortably and turned her hands so that the light of the setting sun flashed across the glass smooth surface. Gently she flexed her fingers, each joint popping faintly.

"All magic comes at a price, Elsa," she said quietly. As if sensing its mistress's discomfort, Hemmelen spread his wings and flapped hard a few times, rising off the queen's arm in a rush of air, until he'd reached Saja's shoulder. "I was young and foolish and stretched my magic too far, too fast, and this was the price I paid. The flesh of my forearms was replaced with ice as a permanent reminder of my folly."

"What…what did you do?" Elsa asked, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer.

"Another time, perhaps," Saja said quietly, her eyes distant as memories rose into her conscious thoughts. "Our time is short, and we've already wasted much of it."

"Can't you control time in dreams?"

"This is as much as dream as it is a memory, and it takes a great deal of energy to speak to you through our connection." Saja pointed to the light blue handprint on Elsa's shoulder. "I will only be able to connect with you a few times before my energy is spent and I retreat back into your blood memories, and we have so much to cover in that short amount of time. The worst part of this is, I can't properly instruct you from within a dream."

"I'm not following," Elsa said frowning.

"When I was taught how to use my powers, I had a flesh and blood instructor. I cannot do that with you, so what I show you here in this world, in this pocket of existence that only exists because of the brand on your shoulder, will be lost in translation when you return to your body." Saja could see the confused look on the queen's face and sighed. "I will try to explain this more clearly. There is a chance you won't remember what has been said between us, or if you do remember, it will be difficult for you to recreate what I've shown you."

"What I learn here won't come back with me?"

"I can only show you what to do. You can't properly learn your magic in this realm because you are not connected to the earth, which is paramount for a Frost Born. We are like trees; we draw power from the air and sky, and channel it down into the earth which roots us in place. The closer to the sky you are while still maintaining a connection to the earth, the more powerful you'll be, and the more you'll be able to control your magic."

"Is that why I was able to build my ice castle so easily?" Elsa asked stroking Himmelen gently on the breast.

"That and other reasons. What you have learned on your own is impressive, but you lack the knowledge of how to properly tap into your power. For instance, you don't know how you were able to make your golem and snow-being and breathe intelligent life into them. The answer is both simple and complex. You formed each out of your magic and imbued them with your will, but you also laid within them a portion of yourself, a facet of your internal thought.

"Your golem is a simple being. You commanded him to protect you and your family and destroy anything that poses a threat, so the part of your soul that grants him movement is the part of your internal thoughts that desires protection. The little snow-being is different. In him, you laid a portion of your innocence, the childlike mind you kept locked away because of the fear that consumed you."

Elsa had expected that about Olaf. The little snowman was pure innocence, bounding around the kingdom with childlike enthusiasm. He was everything the queen couldn't be as a child all balled up into sentient snowman form.

"How many times can you split your mind?"

"That depends on the depth of the magic weaver. Snaer had the ability to split her internal thoughts into thousands of fractures, maybe even hundreds of thousands. I know I can manage about ten thousand fractures, though not all at once. At least…not anymore. Once a fracture is made you cannot reclaim it unless you dissolve your magic. Think of it like a coin purse. If you remove all the coins from the purse more coins won't magically appear. You have to put them back. The same applies for your ice magic, but only you can discover how far you can stretch your mind. Judging from the castle you built in the mountains, you have the ability to split your internal thoughts at least four thousand times, but I may be wrong."

"How many fractures does it take to make something?" Elsa asked, her head spinning. This was like her arithmetic lessons all over again.

"That's a hard question to answer. For Himmelen here, it took fifty fractures. For a dagger, maybe two or three. For an ice castle…well, that's why I told you I didn't know how much power you had. Your palace would have taken thousands of fractures to make, and you built it in a matter of minutes. As I said before, Elsa Frosburg, you are a powerful Frost Born."

Saja looked up suddenly as Himmelen took flight off her arm and rose into the sky shrieking. Squinting into the sunset, the woman could see the first hints of darkness creeping into the land, shadows lengthening and turning from light gray to dark purple, and let out a slow sigh.

"Our time is at an end, I'm afraid." Standing, Saja offered Elsa a hand and helped her to her feet. "I will come again when my energy replenishes itself."

"What can I do until then?"

Saja half smiled and gave the queen a knowing look. "I'm certain your time will be plenty occupied. The novelty of new love."

Elsa felt her face flushing and opened her mouth to retort, but Saja was already walking away from her, quickly descending the steep incline while Himmelen circled above.

"Wait, how will I get back?"

"This is a dream, Elsa Frosburg! Simply wake up!" Saja called over her shoulder.

It was difficult to see the woman now as the shadows continued to lengthen and swallow everything that was once familiar, blurring lines and bleeding colors together. For one terrifying moment, Elsa thought they would swallow her as well and never let go, but just as the last shred of light winked out of sight, and blackness engulfed her, she opened her eyes and found herself staring at a hair dusted chest that rose and fell in the peaceful rhythm of sleep.

Sitting up slowly, wool comforter sliding off her bare shoulders, the queen took in Revel's living quarters with bleary eyes that refused to focus. The fire in the hearth had burned low, throwing long shadows across the room while giving off a faint orange light. It took her a moment to realize where she was and what had happened, both in reality and in her dream. Once the puzzle pieces finally fell into place, Elsa slid out of bed, careful not the wake Revel, and padded over to a low table that held a basin of water and a small silver cup, aware of her nakedness as she moved.

The water was lukewarm but welcome, and she drank her fill before wetting her hands in the basin and rubbing the back of her neck. She could still recall fragments of her dream encounter with Saja, though a few details were fuzzy. Hadn't they talked about some important things? Something about her magic? Shivering despite her immunity to the cold, Elsa looked around and spotted one of Revel's white undershirts lying haphazardly on the chair next to his writing desk and threw it on. She was instantly enveloped in his scent and breathed deeply for a few moments, savoring the familiar and comforting musk. Relaxing in the warm, oversized fabric of his shirt, Elsa opened her eyes and glanced around the room, looking for a clock. Unable to find one, she looked towards the window, hoping the sun hadn't yet begun to rise, and pulled up short when she saw the snowflake she'd given him at Christmas hanging against the dark glass. Gently, she reached up and touched the fragile spines, a small smile pulling at her lips.

_He kept it._

And once that thought crossed her mind, suddenly her interaction and conversation with Saja came back to her in a flood of colors and voices.

* * *

><p>Revel woke when he'd felt his bed shift and mumbled softly in his half sleep. Shifting fractionally, he reached out, expecting to feel a warm body next to him, but instead felt an empty spot that was rapidly cooling. Frowning, he cracked open an eye, not wanting to let on he was awake and coherent, and looked around his heavily shadowed room. Everything was how he'd left it the night before save for the beautiful platinum blond standing under his window, clad in one of his white undershirts that barely reached the middle of her thighs, watching her snowflake twinkle and sparkle as she moved it back and forth. Revel felt himself smile as he watched her, and a warmth spread through his chest that rivaled the battle armor butterflies pounding around in his stomach.<p>

_A year ago, if someone told me I would fall in love with the queen, I'd have punched them in the mouth. Hell, even six months ago, I would have given him a black eye._

After a moment, he pulled back his covers and put his feet on the cold stone floor. Apparently, Elsa was preoccupied with her thoughts because she didn't see or hear him sneak up next to her and jumped when he wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight. A burst of arctic air swirled around them and he shivered.

"You should know better than to sneak up on me," Elsa chided lightly as she leaned back against him.

"You looked lost in thought," Revel said burying his face in her fragrant hair and breathing deeply. "I didn't want to disturb you."

"So you decided scaring me would have been a better idea?"

"I like it when I surprise you," he growled lightly in her ear, and it was the queen's turn to shiver. "What were you thinking about?"

"A dream I had. I think it was about something important, but I can't remember what it was," Elsa said closing her eyes and leaning her head back against his chest.

"Don't think about it and it'll come back to you."

Elsa sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry, did I wake you when I got up?"

"Yes, but that's alright. I'm a light sleeper anyway."

"You could have fooled me," she said and teasingly pushed him away from her. "You passed out."

The Captain smiled wolfishly and folded his arms across his chest, aware he was standing in front of the queen completely naked. He knew he wasn't the most chiseled man in the kingdom, some of his guards, like Sigmund, could pass for Greek statues and had all the women swooning over them, but what muscle he did have had been forged from countless hours of hard drills and lean eating. He caught the queen staring at him out of the corner of her eye, and his grin widened.

"See something you like, Majesty?" Elsa realized she'd been caught, and her sudden, furious blush only made him grin more. "I'm not the only one who passed out afterword. You seemed quite relaxed and….content, before dropping off to sleep."

"Yes well, it has been a very…exciting day…for the both of us," she said after finding her voice.

"Come back to bed," Revel said extending his hand and nodding towards his mattress.

Elsa shook her head. "I should be getting back to my quarters before someone realizes I'm gone."

"What's a few more hours of sleep? I promise I'll wake you before dawn."

"I don't even know what time it is," she said glancing out the window.

Revel squinted at the small clock on his mantel that the queen hadn't noticed. "A little before four in the morning, two more hours before sunrise."

Reluctantly, Elsa followed Revel back to his bed and slid under the covers, fighting a contented sigh when she stretched out on the cool mattress. The Captain slid in front her and snuggled close, arms encircling her shoulders.

"Promise you won't let me over sleep?" Elsa mumbled into his chest, already slipping back under.

Revel gently stroked the side of her face with his fingertips, careful not to brush the cut on her cheek. "I'll wake you in an hour or so. Get some rest."

She might have said something else, but it was lost in the garble of sleep. For the next hour and a half, Revel watched his sleeping queen, memorized every pore of her face, every freckle, every hair and eyelash. He wanted to know her with all of his senses because there was no telling how long this would last. Fate had never been kind to him in the past. Still, he'd savor every moment with her as if it were his last, content with the knowledge that he had finally loved a woman and she had loved him in return.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** wOOt for quiet moments between lovers! This last half gave me all kinds of warm fuzzies. I was seriously grinning like a fool by the end of it. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts both on here and on my tumblr. I shouldn't have to remind my awesome watchers that I'll be continuing to post Dustings on my tumblr. Please stop by and bug the hell out of me. I love visitors.


	14. Chapter 14

February gave way to a rainy, cold March that didn't seem to want to end. Storms rolled in off the sea almost daily, gray clouds blotting out the sun for what seemed like weeks on end and hanging low over Arendelle in a near constant fog. Some days it would rain hard enough that the fat drops striking the castle windows sounded like a tattoo of drums. Other days, it would drizzle enough to leave the kingdom soaked in a fine mist, beads of water clinging to every available surface like dew. In the end, everything remained wet and cold and gloomy. Everything except the monarch of the prosperous kingdom and a wayward guard Captain, because not even the rain could dampen the solar fire burning between them.

As with all new and unfamiliar love, Elsa and Revel took every opportunity they could scrape together to see each other, cherishing the moments no matter how small. During the day it was passing meetings, the queen taking a detour down a deserted hallway where her lover waited, shrouded in shadow and lit with a desire to hold and kiss the woman he'd surrendered himself to. Sometimes, Elsa could swing a 'security' meeting with the Captain, explaining she needed to go over guard placement for the Spring Trade Summit at the end of April. Though once the doors shut behind them, there was little planning done since the Captain's hands and mouth were preoccupied with other, sweeter ventures, and the queen had little voice to delegate commands.

There was less risk of the two getting caught while in Revel's office, but Elsa couldn't keep making trips to the Guard House, at least not during the day. So their liaisons outside a 'scheduled encounter' were brief at best, a kiss and an embrace, whispered words of wit and romance that left the both of them grinning like fools and aching for the moment when the sun would finally set and they could be together without fear of discovery. And it was at night, when the rest of civilization was asleep and the kingdom was quiet, that the buildup of the day was released in carnal form, bodies intertwining as they rode the wave of passion like leaves caught in an undertow.

As the weeks progressed, spring started to set in, and the nova of passion gently cooled into the warm glow of sensuality and contentment, allowing the two lovers to regain some semblance of control over themselves when in each other's company. Conversations began again: words of advice, encouragement, wishful thinking, love, hazy plans for the future, and stories of the past passed between the two as they lay wrapped in each other's arms, the fading heat of their lovemaking radiating around them like a warm afterglow. Revel continued to surprise the queen, regaling her with stories of his years in Arendelle and the things he'd seen while traveling between Germany and Norway after leaving home, but there was always hesitation when he spoke about his family as if he were trying to puzzle something out or choose his words wisely. So, with no small amount of shock, one evening after their passion had run its course Revel divulged a piece of his past Elsa hadn't been expecting to hear.

"I'll tell you secret if you promise it never leaves your lips," he said as they lay together in his bed one late night, the sheets barely covering their naked forms. They hadn't been talking about anything in particular, just passing the hours in relaxed company, so when Elsa heard the seriousness in his voice, she immediately took notice. She looked up from her place against his chest and cocked an eyebrow, her mane of platinum hair falling over her shoulders as she shifted her weight onto her elbow.

"Is this a secret that will make me question everything about you?" she asked cocking an eyebrow playfully.

"It might, but I think it needs to be said. I've…I've been thinking a lot about my past lately, and it seems unfair that you have share so much with me and I so little with you."

"Revel, I know you haven't had an easy life, so you don't need to explain yourself. We can't live in the past," Elsa said putting a cool hand on his chest, splaying her fingers as she played with a dusting of dark, curly hair. She could see fear in his eyes, but fear of what she couldn't possibly fathom. What had he done before coming to Arendelle that would make him wall off a portion of his childhood? Or had something been done to him? She almost shuddered at the implications, and, not for the first time, a deeper part of herself, the part connected to her ancestor through blood and magic, whispered a warning.

_Do you really know enough about this man to trust him so completely?_

"I always fear my past coming back to haunt me somehow. It's one of my greatest fears." Taking a breath, he squeezed her with the almost desperate tightness of a man about to be swept away by a strong current. "I told you a while back I wasn't proud of my younger years, and that wasn't untrue. I left home in a hurry after my father's death. I had no other choice, and a young boy alone on the streets can run into…trouble."

_Forced from home,_ Elsa realized with a start as his words sank in. _He didn't leave on his own accord after his father's death?_

"Such as," Elsa asked slowly.

"Are you familiar with the kingdom of Brekemal?"

This time, Elsa did shudder. "Please, I was blissfully relieved when that cesspool of a kingdom burned to the gr—"

The queen sat up suddenly, not bothering to pull the covers over herself. Revel refused to meet her eyes, a sure sign that what she suspected of happening actually had something to do with him.

"You burned down Brekemal? That was almost thirteen years ago!"

"In a way, yes," he whispered pulling himself into a sitting position but still refusing to meet her startled gaze. "I migrated to the kingdom shortly after leaving home. I had hoped to start a life there. I was only fifteen, a wary fifteen year old, but still so young. I was under no disillusion that I would have it easy…I just didn't know how hard it could be.

"With no money, and no way of claiming who my father was, I had nothing. The son of a…prosperous merchant is usually welcome where his father does business, but I had no way of indicating who I was. And a child with no identification and no writ of passage is barred from everything. So I lived there doing what I could and with who I could."

Elsa understood what Revel was saying and made an apologetic sound. "You lived on the streets."

"Yes, and in Brekemal, one did not simply curl up to sleep in an alley without paying the gang who ran the area a tax. So I learned very quickly how to get the things these gangs needed in order to remain unmolested. I became an adequate thief, but paying their taxes wasn't enough to secure protection from any number of dangers lurking in the kingdom's alleys and dark places. That was the second lesson I learned in my first few months; there is safety in numbers, even if those numbers are thick with crime.

"The gang I became entangled with was a low level group who lived in the poorer area of Brekemal. We squatted in an abandoned shack; all twenty of us, housed in a single room meant for half our numbers. Our entire purpose was to get enough money to survive from day to day and pay the required tax to the bigger gangs in the area, mainly the King's Bastards, the prominent gang who ran the underworld in Brekemal. Ironically, it was run by one of the king's own bastards, hence the name. So for two years, I kept my head down, endured the hardships that came with being an urchin and a thief, watched friends hang when they weren't fast enough to escape the city watch, or watched them succumb to illness and disease. It was a horrible time, but I didn't think things could get much bleaker…until the night the city burned."

Revel was silent for a long time, staring at the low embers in his hearth as he pulled the memories together. Elsa watching him in rapped silence, unsure if she should comfort him or keep her distance. She chose the latter of the two and remained still until he finally began to speak again.

"The leader of our gang was a man named Kelven, Kel for short. I wouldn't call him an ambitious person; he'd lived his life moving from gang to gang and dreamed of one day making enough coin that he could overthrow the King's Bastards and run the underground. It was a foolish dream. Kel didn't have the stomach for the politics and violence associated with gang warfare, but he still dreamed and schemed, and those are what got him killed.

"One evening, Kel got into a fairly nasty fight with one of the King's Bastards and went and got himself roaring drunk afterward. While in his drunken stupor, he vowed to avenge the honor he'd lost during his beating, and told anyone who would listen he'd challenge the Bastard's leader to a duel. In order to do that, he decided our little gang needed better weapons than the broken pieces of glass and shards of metal we used for makeshift knives. So, Kel came up with the grand idea to steal weapons from the town armory. Obviously, the rest of us were powerless to say no."

"I'm not following how this resulted in burning the kingdom to the ground," Elsa said frowning. Revel chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head.

"The armory wasn't just a place where the guards stored their swords at night. It was also where the alchemists worked developing powders and potions. It was also dangerously close to the King's Bastards territory. So, imagine twenty grungy unchains, some as young as ten, sneaking into the armory and setting about looking for weapons. No one realized there weren't any guards around until it was too late and the trap was sprung. Apparently, Kel's rantings had been overheard, and the Bastards didn't take kindly to threats, no matter how small the gang. They attacked us once we were in the armory, bolting the doors shut so we couldn't escape. They did, however, make one grievous mistake. They'd locked themselves in as well.

"When the fighting broke out, I ran for the nearest room and bolted the door behind me. Luckily, there was a window I could climb out of, and in my haste to escape the slaughter, I knocked over every bottle and container in that room in order to get to the window. I didn't even realize what was happening, or what I could be doing, until I heard a soft hissing coming from one corner of the room. Green flames were creeping across the floor towards ten large wooden barrels. I didn't even stop to wonder what could have been stored in the airtight barrels in a military and alchemy armory. When the first explosion threw me out the window, I realized something awful was about to happen. The second explosion tore half the side of the armory off. I remember seeing flaming bodies scrambling and shrieking down the street, trailing fire as they slowly burned to death. There was a third and a fourth explosion, but by then I was running as fast as I could from the green flames, heading towards the city gates.

"It was the fifth and final explosion that did the most damage. Apparently, a few of the barrels contained a recipe for Greek Fire, or as close to it as the alchemist could get. The explosion sent globs of sticky goo in every direction, and anything it touched went up like a torch. I'm sure you know the legends about Greek Fire. It can't be put out with water or earth, and with how packed together the homes and businesses were in Brekemal, it was a matter minutes before half the kingdom was ablaze, the castle included."

"They say the kingdom burned for a week straight before the fires died, and only a few hundred souls survived," Elsa whispered as she recalled the letter her father had gotten from a Duke in a neighboring hamlet. The news of the burning had rippled through the monarchy in and around Berkemal as thoroughly as the fires that consumed the kingdom.

"It's rumored there were less survivors."

"But, I'm confused. How is any of that your fault? It's not as if you intentionally set fire to those barrels. You were running for your life."

"Had I not tangled myself with the gang, or if I could have talked sense into Kel, none of it would have happened. There were innocent people in Berkemal. I could have called the fire brigade while I ran, but I was too much of a coward. I just kept running and running until my legs gave out."

Elsa made a face and scooted closer to Revel, taking his warm face in her hands. "Listen to me. You are _not_ a coward; you were a young man afraid for his life. I don't know many full grown men who could have faced down a wave of Greek Fire. The fact that you escaped unscathed is testament that you weren't supposed to die that day."

"But I could have prevented it!"

"By getting yourself killed? By letting those thugs end your life? Revel, you're not making any sense. Why are you blaming yourself for an accident?"

"I just…I just felt responsible for the people in my gang. Even if they were urchins, they were still a kind of family. They were people who could have had more, who could have had a better life, but they chose to stay on the streets. So I felt responsible for taking care of them because I didn't begin on the streets. Because I knew what it felt like to have a family who was blood related, and friends who you didn't have to worry would stab you in the back, and…and a life."

There was so much sorrow and regret in the Captain's eyes, Elsa pulled him toward her and locked him in the tightest embrace she could manage. He squeezed her in return, burying his face in her shoulder and breathing in her comforting scent. After a moment they pulled back from one another, but Elsa refused to let go of his hands.

"You can't keep lamenting about the past, because no matter how much we want to change it, the past is in the past. We can learn from it, but we can't remain locked in it. If we do, there isn't any hope of us living in the present." She leaned in and kissed him deeply, fingers trailing icy tendrils down his jaw. "And I _need_ you in the here and now with me, so stop blaming yourself. Stop saying you could have prevented bad things from happening. There was nothing you could have done to make the outcome change. It's like saying you could have changed the outcome of your father's death. It's not as if you're responsible for ending his life, so stop dwelling on it."

"What?" Revel's face went so pale so fast that Elsa feared he'd pass out and topple off the bed. A flicker of something deeper than fear flashed across his face, his green eyes wide as saucers. She saw him slide a look over at the hearth before drawing in a slow breath and steadying himself as if realizing everything was fine and the fear he'd briefly felt was unfounded.

"Are you alright?" Elsa asked, brow knitted in concern. In the pit of her stomach she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

_Why did he look over at the hearth?_

"I…I…" He took another moment to breath, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I think I just misunderstood what you said, is all. I'm sorry, and you're right. I couldn't have prevented my father's death, but it doesn't mean I don't still feel responsible."

Elsa watched him for a minute, weighing his words. "Are you sure you're alright? I've never seen you go so pale before."

Revel touched his face and felt sweat come away on his fingertips.

_Why am I sweating?_

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I feel…off, but I can't explain how or why. Something just doesn't feel right."

"Maybe there's been too much ice in your life," Elsa teased.

Revel grinned and pulled her close. "Well, if I'm running a fever, I know one person who can cool me down."

"Oh, do you now? A fever, you do not have, but perhaps some sleep will do you good."

"A marvelous idea," Revel yawned, snuggling down into his sheets. Elsa curled in her usual place against his chest, moaning softly as his fingertips traced lazy circles around her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're alright," she asked one last time.

"As long as I have you here."

"You do," she said smiling.

"Then I'm perfect."

Elsa knew Revel wasn't telling her everything. She could see it like a shadow lurking in the back of his eyes. There was something of far more significance he was keeping from her, but she knew it was a matter of time and trust before he divulged the final secret pieces of his life before Arendelle.

_In a way, he's just like I used to be_, Elsa thought as she felt the rise and fall of his chest even out as sleep took hold. _And I can't fault him for having a past he doesn't want to discuss. It's disconcerting, yes, but it's not something I'm unfamiliar with. How long did it take for me to fully trust Anna with the story of our past and the reason for my exile? _

With a sigh, she pushed the niggling questions from her mind. For the time being, she was the happiest she'd been in years, and Elsa would do everything in her power to keep things the way they were. She knew it was a futile effort, the world was forever changing, but she'd hold on for as long as possible.

_Maybe I'll talk to Anna about this. _

* * *

><p>"He did <em>what?<em>" Anna gaped, sandwich half way to her mouth.

The royal sisters sat together in a small parlor just off the Great Hall where they often took private lunches. It was a treasured custom Elsa had been neglecting over the past month, so the day after her talk with Revel, she asked her sister to have lunch with her so they could discuss 'sisterly things'. Anna happily agreed, thrilled at the possibility of being able to discuss whatever was on her older sister's mind, as well as give her something important from Grand Pabbie, and the two sat down to a light lunch of sandwiches, tea, and small pastries. The princess hadn't known that what Elsa had wanted to talk about pertained to her secret lover and his sordid past.

"Shhh, Anna, please," Elsa chided, sliding a look over to the door. One could never be too careful when speaking in a castle. As her father had always said, the walls could grow ears when they wanted to. The queen wasn't worried about unwanted eavesdroppers, no one in her employment would be caught dead spying, but there was a level of paranoia she couldn't shake no matter how honest she believed her staff to be.

"You can't tell me something like that and expect me to react quietly!" Anna said in a forced whisper. "Did he really burn down Berkemel?"

"According to him, yes. He was associated with a gang—"

"Are you serious?! _A gang_?"

"Not by choice! He was forced into it in order to survive living homeless on the streets."

"Why on earth did he do that?"

"I…I'm not quite sure," Elsa said taking a small sip of tea and frowning. "When Revel and I first started talking on the parapets at night, he told me he left home after his father's death because he had no other reason for staying."

Anna nodded as if to confirm his story. "He told me the same thing when I asked him about his past during out training sessions."

"See, that makes sense to me. But yesterday, he told me that he _had_ to leave home, as if he didn't have a choice in the matter."

"That's…a little weird, yeah. Maybe he was just being polite when you two were talking on the parapets? I mean, it's not really polite conversation. 'Why yes, I was forced out of my home after my father's murder for various reasons that don't really pertain to this conversation'," Anna said, mimicking a deep male voice that could only be an attempt to imitate Revel.

"I guess you're right. Being evicted from home after your father's death isn't really good conversation starters. And I guess I can understand why it happened. I mean, he was the son of a wealthy merchant. If his father had debts, assuming, of course, that's the case, Revel and his brothers' would have been responsible for paying them back. Maybe their home and assets were seized by the governing Duke," Elsa mused as her mind worked to puzzle out Revel's cryptic words.

_Yes, that makes sense. Mounting debts can cripple a kingdom and doom a family if the only living heirs aren't capable of payment or mismanage funds. And Revel did say he had an older brother who would have inherited his father's business, for better or for worse. Maybe Revel ran because he and his siblings were being chased by collectors. But then why hasn't he spoken about his brothers? I don't even know their names._

"Anyway, he lived with the gang for two years, surviving by stealing what he could to pay the gang tax and stay alive."

"That's horrible," Anna said making a face. "But how did he burn down the kingdom?"

"His gang was set up and ambushed in a guard house. Revel found an open window in an alchemist's room and knocked over different chemicals in order to escape. Some of them must have been flammable because they set fire to the room which was full of barrels of recreated Greek Fire."

"Wait…wait…Greek Fire? Why on earth was Brekemal kingdom making barrels of recreated Greek Fire?" Anna asked in shocked surprise.

"I'm as unsettled by the information as you are. Why indeed? Why would any kingdom create such a volatile element if not for war?"

"That's a scary thought. So Revel lit the barrels on fire?"

"Accidentally. Naturally they exploded and spread throughout the entire kingdom."

"Wow, that's just…wow. It's a miracle he got out alive, and I guess we should be thanking him. If Brekemal had intentions of going to war, our guard Captain foiled those plans pretty thoroughly."

"I told him that none of it was his fault, but he seems to carry so much guilt over something that was an accident. He blames himself for the deaths in the kingdom and the deaths of his friends." Elsa raised her eyebrow at her sister when she noticed she was giving her a wide, sly grin. "What?"

"Gee, that's sounds strangely familiar. Blaming yourself over something that was _obviously_ an accident and carrying around guilt for it for years. Oh no, I've _never_ met someone who's done _that._"

Elsa scowled. "It's not the same."

"Like hell it isn't! You blamed yourself for what happened to me—"

"That's because it was my fault!"

"We were playing, Elsa. I still don't remember that night, but you said we were playing in the Great Hall like we usually did, and you accidentally slipped and hit me with your ice. Same goes for the incident in your ice castle during the Great Freeze. Same goes for freezing the kingdom. Everything was an _accident_. Would you sit here and tell young Revel that what happened to him was somehow his fault?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"Then the same thing goes for you. No more blaming yourself for past events. You and Revel are like kindred spirits. No wonder you two get along so well."

"I…I guess I never thought of it that way," Elsa admitted and absentmindedly rubbed her left shoulder where Saja's brand was diminishing into a faint blush of a gray handprint. It was hardly noticeable anymore, and unless she moved a certain way in the light or touched it, the mark was all but invisible.

_Maybe that's why I'm drawn to him. We have similar pasts and similar scars._

Anna caught the motion and pursed her lips, fidgeting nervously with her napkin in her lap. "Elsa, that mark isn't really a bruise, is it?"

The queen stopped rubbing her shoulder and sighed, unsure how to broach this subject with her sister. Should she tell her the truth or let Anna keep believing she'd unintentionally hurt herself?

"It's…complicated, Anna," she eventually sighed and looked up at her sister. "I don't think you'd believe me."

"Elsa," Anna said leaning forward and cocking an eyebrow that oh so familiar to the queen, "you have ice powers, Kristoff's adopted family are trolls, you made two sentient snowmen and an ice castle after freezing an entire kingdom. I think I can handle whatever you tell me."

"Fine, you're right." Elsa sighed and lowered her eyes. "It happened the night I collapsed. I was in a bad way that night, Anna. There was so much darkness in me; I didn't know where to go or what to do. I…I contemplated taking a walk along the parapets…and jumping…"

Anna's face paled and she sat back in her chair. "I knew something was wrong," she whispered. "I could _feel _it. I knew you were soul sick, and I didn't want to leave that night because I just had this feeling things would get worse the minute Kristoff and I were gone from the palace."

Elsa reached across the table and took her sister's hands in her, squeezing her fingers tightly. "But nothing happened, Anna. I didn't go through with it because I couldn't leave you like Mamma and Papa left us. And I'll never entertain those horrible thoughts again, I swear."

"So…so the mark happened when you went back to your room?" Anna asked shaking herself to be rid of the cloying fear.

"I went and got some work done in my study before heading to bed, but I don't remember ever making it _to_ my bed. I think that's the point there I passed out, or something. I remember the nightmare I was having," Elsa shuddered at the memory of that horrible dream, "but something changed. I woke up, and I was standing in the middle of my room."

"Like, you fell asleep standing up?"

"Maybe? I'm not sure. I just remember blinking awake and looking around at a dark room. I was still fully dressed, my bed was untouched, and I was just standing there. It wasn't until I looked back at my mirror that I saw…her."

"_Her_?" Anna frowned and leaned forward.

"There was a woman standing in my mirror who wasn't me. And she…she wasn't just standing there; she came _through_ the mirror like it was a doorway."

"Elsa…are you sure this wasn't a dream?" Anna said giving her sister a worried look. It wasn't like Elsa to lie about things. Sure, she had her secrets, but she'd never been one to spin fantastical stories to explain away accidents or mishaps like the princess was notorious for. But what the queen was describing to her sister was something straight out of a story book, and a frightening one at that. People crawling out of mirrors? Had Elsa really seen that or had it been her fevered mind playing tricks on her? Anna was inclined to believe that her sister had just had an extraordinarily vivid dream, but the look of utter sincerity in her shinning cerulean eyes made the princess think twice.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me," the queen said sitting back with an exasperated sigh. Why had she thought this was a good idea again?

"No, no! It's just a little strange, that's all. I mean, people coming out of mirrors? That's terrifying! But, please continue. I'll keep quiet, I promise."

"No you won't." Elsa half smiled and Anna stuck her tongue out at her. She stared silently at her sister for a few heartbeats before deciding to finish her tale. "Apparently, that night I was going to have a visit from our ancestor, Queen Saja."

"Wait, are you serious?" the princess said as her eyebrows shot into her hairline. "_The_ Saja? The one from the legends? What was she like?"

"She was definitely different than what the stories we've read. Saja looked a lot like me…or I resemble her. She was a warrior during her life, and she's certainly not someone to be trifled with. She was livid when she came to me, and chastised me for my…thoughts."

"Glad someone got the chance to," Anna mumbled. The queen quirked her in face in an annoyed expression but continued as if not interrupted.

"After that…we sort of had it out with one another."

"You fought our ancestor?"

"More like she forcefully taught me a few valuable lessons about ice magic and the various ways it could be lethal. She was powerful Anna, _so powerful_. Everything I've learned over the years pales in comparison to what she can do with half the effort. Afterword, she told me I'm part of a race called the Frost Born. She was the first born from Snaer, and I'm the only other Frost Born seen in four hundred years."

"Snaer was her mother? Not the witch in the mountains?"

"I wasn't able to ask her that."

"Why wasn't this mentioned in our history? I've never read anything about Frost Born or anything like it in Saja's legends." Anna tapped her chin and furrowed her brow in though. "Maybe Pabbie knows something."

"Perhaps. I don't know why it took four hundred years for another one of us to be born, or if there were others and I'm just the most recent. Maybe it did have something to do with that herbal tradition Papa told us about when we were young. I'll have to ask Saja the next time she visits me."

"You've seen her more than once?"

"She came to me the night you caught Revel and me in the library," Elsa blushed and looked away momentarily. "She apologized for our rough first meeting and wanted to start teaching me about my powers. We spoke about how we Frost Born have a limited number of fractures within us that determine how much power we can use at any given time, and how I can communicate with anything I make out of ice. It's…it's really hard to explain out loud. In my head it makes perfect sense, but saying it to someone else…"

"It's alright," Anna shrugged. "But this is still exciting! You've somehow gotten a direct link to our earliest ancestor. Just think of the things you could learn from her! Like, how the Frosberg line really came to be, and the stuff about the herbal tradition. We don't know anything before great, great, great grandfather, so this could be an excellent time to find out our history."

"Only problem is, I haven't seen or felt her for weeks. When she first appeared, the mark she gave me was dark, like a bruise. Now, it's faded. I don't know if it's linked to my connection to her or what."

"How did she mark you?"

"With her hand. I don't know how she did it, but she used her hand to burn my skin…only it doesn't feel like a burn. It feels like marble when I touch it, and it's cold."

"Weird. Well, if she used her magic to mark you, maybe you can use your magic to call her?"

"It's worth a try," Elsa shrugged and smiled. "To think, none of this would have happened had I not started having sessions with Revel."

"I'm still mad you didn't tell me," Anna said pursing her lips and crossing her arms over her chest. "I wouldn't have been angry, and having someone to spar with aside from Revel and Kristoff would have been nice."

"How many times can I apologize for keeping it from you?"

"Well…we could always ice the Great Hall," Anna mused trying to hide her excited grin.

Elsa cocked an eyebrow but couldn't hide her own smile. "You're heavily pregnant, Anna. I think the last thing we need is you slipping on ice."

"Then we can build a snowman together!" the princess said jumping up and pulling her sister to her feet. A sudden thought seemed to strike her, and she pulled up short. "Oh, I completely forgot!"

"Pardon?" Elsa asked quirking an eyebrow.

"We got to talking about Revel and your dates with our ancient ancestor, and I completely forgot I needed to give you something." Anna returned to the table and retrieved the small leather pouch she'd brought with her. Elsa had noticed it when they sat down for lunch but hadn't thought much of it. Now, however, she gave her sister a puzzled look. Anna unlaced the pouch and shook a blue crystal, wrapped with a thin leather thong, into her palm and handed it to her sister.

"This is from Pabbie. When Kristoff and I went to visit him last, he gave me this to give to you. I'm sorry it took so long for me to remember," Anna winced and kicked at the carpet, knowing she was about a month late with Grand Pabbie's gift. The shock of seeing her sister with Revel in the library, and the hectic weeks following, had completely erased her given task from Pabbie from her mind until her husband and noticed the pouch on their nightstand that morning.

"Is this a troll crystal?" Elsa asked picking up the gem by the leather thong and examining it with a curious eye. "Like yours and Kristoff's?"

"Yes, and Pabbie mined it especially for you," Anna said sheepishly.

"Why would he go through the trouble?"

The princess looked down at the floor and kicked her feet again. "Because I told him you'd been soul sick. That was the reason for our visit. I thought that maybe Pabbie would know something to help you get better. He asked when it had started and what your symptoms were, and when I told him, he said you needed," she screwed up her face, trying to remember the exact words, "non-traditional earth medicine. That's why Kristoff and I stayed the night. Pabbie went into the Starlight Cavern and pulled that crystal from a special vein. He told me to give it to you as soon as possible."

Elsa settled the crystal in her palm and turned it in the light. She knew little about troll magic, the earth guardians were a secretive bunch when it came to sharing information about their magics and abilities, but she knew that crystals mined from the Starlight Cavern were precious to the trolls. They held strange magics of their own and were only given to the worthy or those in desperate need.

"Did he say whether or not I needed to wear it or just keep it close?"

"I…" Anna paused and searched her memory. "He didn't say actually. He just said to give it to you. I assume that meant to wear it like I do mine." She reached past the collar of her dress and withdrew the small pink crystal she wore at all times and smiled fondly at the gem.

"Strange, Pabbie usually isn't so cryptic." Elsa frowned. Then her frown deepened when she realized the significance of the stone's color. "Anna, this is a male stone. Only male trolls wear cooler colors."

"I noticed that too, and I asked Pabbie about it before we left. Apparently, there are stones that represent different elements and the stone in your hand is an ice stone. It won't hinder your magic, but he said it might help balance you out."

Not knowing exactly what to say, Elsa slipped the necklace over her head and tucked the stone under her underdress where it nestled just between her breasts. She could sense a coolness emanating from the stone and felt a faint buzz race across her skin the moment it touched her. Jerking in surprise, Elsa pulled her underdress down and looked at the crystal but saw nothing amiss.

"Is it supposed to…tingle when it hits your skin?"

"Mine did," Anna shrugged with a smile. She reached out and took her sister's hand, pulling her along behind her. "Come on! I want to see if I can break my record snowman build!"

Elsa opened her mouth to protest but thought better of it. Maybe some fun would take her mind off the hundreds of questions bouncing around in her mind about her mysterious lover, her equally mysterious, dream hopping ancestor, and now the crystal hidden beneath her dress. Tonight she had work to do and wouldn't able to sneak off to be with Revel. Perhaps a snowman was just the distraction she needed to muddle things out in her mind.

* * *

><p>After dinner, the queen excused herself to her study to finish the last couple of invitations for the Spring Trade Summit at the end of the month. So far, the tally for attending dignitaries, monarchs, Dukes and Duchesses exceeded two hundred, not including the addition of traveling companions and entourages. It was safe to assume that Arendelle would be accommodating at least a thousand visitors, and that meant figuring out housing, food, adequate water supply, scheduled meetings, ball preparations, and guard placement. Elsa was immensely grateful that Kai had taken the responsibility of arranging housing and food while she took care of ball arrangements and meetings. Revel assured her that he'd have all his men staffed that week as well as coordinating staggered patrols and crowd control with Arendelle's military General. The higher nobility would stay in the guest wing of the castle, or on their own docked ships, while the lesser nobility would stay in the inns in town. The queen wasn't to terribly keen on having so many strange visitors sleeping in the castle, but it was a necessary evil when hosting the biggest trade summit in the Northern region.<p>

Elsa worked until her fingers were black with ink stains and her back was aching from being hunched for so long before declaring herself finished for the day and in serious need of a long soak. Summoning Gerda, she had a bath drawn and happily sank into the steaming hot water with a blissful sigh as she felt her tense muscles begin to loosen.

_Sometimes the smallest things hold the greatest pleasures._

Soaping her hair and scrubbing herself clean with lightly scented soaps, the queen remained in the bath until the water had lost a good portion of its bite and her vividly pink skin had begun to wrinkle. With great reluctance, she toweled herself off and returned to her chambers, ready for a night of peaceful sleep, only now she wasn't as tired as she'd been before her bath. Sighing, Elsa sat down in front of her vanity and carefully arranged her wet hair into a loose braid. As she inspected her work in the mirror, she caught sight of the mark on her shoulder and paused.

_Maybe Anna was right. Maybe I can call Saja by using my power._

It wasn't like she knew what she was doing. Everything that Saja had told her was still being processed in her head. She still had so many questions and didn't even know if this would work, but Elsa decided it was worth a try. Plus, she needed to see how far her powers could stretch, and hadn't Saja said something about communicating through their shared bloodline?

Carefully, Elsa positioned her right hand over the metallic blue handprint on her shoulder and concentrated her power into her palm and fingers. Steadily, the mark grew colder and colder as she pushed magic into her skin, willing it to only touch the brand and nothing else. But after a few minutes it just felt like she was trying to purposely freeze her shoulder, and Elsa didn't feel any different from when she'd started. Withdrawing her hand, the queen inspected the mark in the mirror. Nothing had changed. Sighing in frustration, she leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.

_Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Maybe Saja is the only one who can communicate with me._ Then a thought occurred to her and she scrunched her brow._ Wait, she said it was a connection through the bloodline. Maybe…maybe there needs to be blood in order to call her. Saja did say that's how I summoned her in the first place, with blood on a blade of my making._

Waving her hand, Elsa summoned a thin ice dagger no larger than a letter opener but sharper than any razor in the kingdom. Swallowing her unease, and unsure why communicating with her ancestor had suddenly become so important, she set the blade in the center of her brand and pushed the tip of the dagger under her skin. Hissing through the pain, Elsa dispersed the dagger and put her right hand back in position and summoned her magic. This time, however, she focused on the Frost Born and the questions swirling around in her mind. She remained like that for a handful of minutes, eyes tightly shut in concentration, before cracking open and eye and looking at the mirror. If she'd been expecting to see someone other than herself, she was greatly disappointed. She was, however, greeted by a faint glow coming from a small point in the center of her chest. Lowering her towel, Elsa lifted the blue crystal and frowned at it. The stone was cold to the touch and shone with a faint, ghostly light emanating from its center. As she held the stone, the light gently faded until extinguishing completely, and the queen was once again left in twilight.

"Well, that was certainly unexpected, and a bit of a wasted venture. At least the cold took the pain of the cut away," she said examining the small puncture wound in the mirror as she wiped blood off her right palm. It was more than that, it seemed. Her ice hadn't just dulled the pain of her cut; it had also congealed over the wound and pulled it shut. She could hardly see where the cut was anymore aside from where the small bump of blue ice sat.

"That's curious. It's never done that before."

Throwing on a thin robe, Elsa decided she'd had enough magical dabbling for the night and snuggled into her bed, pulling the large tome Revel had given her for Christmas into her lap and reading where she'd left off.

It hadn't occurred to her that she'd fallen asleep while reading until a faint grinding noise woke her some hours later. Opening her eyes, Elsa looked around her now dark room, the small lamp she'd been reading by having run out of oil and extinguished. At first, she thought it had just been her imagination, or perhaps the fading tendrils of an already forgotten dream, but the sound came to her again, and this time Elsa was sure it had come from somewhere near her bookcase next to her vanity. When her bookcase, which sat flush against the wall, swung towards her as if on well-oiled hinges, the queen was propelled out of bed by a thrill of fear and crept across the room, jumping from one shadow to the next on the balls of her feet.

It had never crossed her mind that there might have been a secret passage leading into her room. Arendelle castle was ancient and riddled with hidden pathways and passages that the royal sisters had discovered during their early years of exploration, but one leading directly to the royal chambers? That she hadn't expected, and the realization that she could have been taken unawares in the middle of the night was terrifying. Elsa knew Anna would never use a secret door to gain entrance into her room. If that had been the case, she'd have never been able to get the princess out of her quarters when she needed privacy. She knew none of the staff would dare use something like this, so whoever was attempting to break into her room wasn't someone she knew and that could mean only one thing.

_Assassin._

Teeth gritted, nostrils flared, and heart in her throat, Elsa positioned herself in the shadow behind the bookcase and slid into a fighter's stance: feet apart, weight evenly distributed on the balls of her feet, and readied herself. The stranger who was coming through the passage crossed the threshold and began to close the bookcase behind them, she sprang into action. Elsa stepped up behind the assassin, sheathed her hands in ice, and delivered a solid blow to his right kidneys with all the force she could put into hook punch. The man grunted in surprise and hunched in the direction of the blow, having to use the bookcase to steady himself. The queen instinctively ducked, remembering Revel's words about the threat of retaliation with an elbow or a back fist, and delivered two more blows to his left kidneys in quick succession. The assassin staggered, obviously winded, and Elsa pressed her advantage by grabbing him by the shirt and spinning him into her elbow. The man's head snapped to the side with a forceful crack, and he slipped to the floor quietly.

"I did it," Elsa breathed, pulse pounding like a drum in her ears. "I did it! Yes!" Overcome with excitement and self-pride, she delivered a swift kick to the man's ribs for good measure. "Now to get a look at you and call the guards."

She retrieved a lantern from her vanity, lit it, and stood in front of the man. With the wave of her hand, ice encased his legs up to his knees and climbed up his back until it encircled his neck like an icy collar. Flicking her fingers towards the ceiling, the queen's ice obeyed and pulled the unconscious man into a standing position against the wall. He hung there like a broken puppet, supported only by ice. Raising her lantern, Elsa stepped forward with a small smirk on her face. "Now, let's see if I— oh my sweet God, Revel!?"

Elsa set the lamp down and took the Captain's face in her hands, turning it in the light to make sure it was him. Panicked, she dispersed the ice but didn't anticipate having to catch and hold a man who outweighed her by at least seventy five pounds. His limp body pulled her to the floor and they landed in a tangle of limbs. After a moment of undignified struggling, Elsa managed to roll him into his side before pulling him into her lap. Blood was oozing out of his nose and mouth and a dark bruise was starting to form along his right temple.

"Oh no—oh no—oh…shit. Revel, can you hear me?" Gently, she put a hand against the bruise on his face and pulled her magic into her palm. That seemed to rouse him a bit, and he moaned lightly and shifted. After a moment, he cracked open his eyes and looked around blearily.

"Wh-what hit me?"

"Oh thank God," Elsa breathed and scooted under him so that he could look up at her without having to crane his neck. "Are you alright?"

"Did…oh God, my ribs are on fire. Did you just…attack me?"

"Of course I did! I thought you were an assassin!"

"Why would you—"

"How was I supposed to know there was a secret passageway in my chambers!" Elsa admonished wiping the blood on his face away with the sleeve of her robe.

"These _are_ your chambers. I thought you knew about the passage."

"If I had I wouldn't have attacked you! Why on earth were you sneaking into my room in the first place?"

Revel grunted and winced as she slowly sat up, right hand pressed against his ribs. He looked sheepishly towards the bookcase and the bundle of spring moon flowers lying on the floor. Elsa followed his line of sight and felt a wave of guilt crash into her.

"I…I wanted to surprise you," he said with a shallow shrug and made him gasp in pain. "I guess I managed to do just that."

"Oh, Revel, I'm so sorry. Do I need to call the Physician?"

"And have to explain to her why I'm in your personal chambers at night? No, I'm fine. I've had worse bruises than this; though I've got to say, your punches have gotten a lot stronger."

Elsa blushed and raised a hand. Translucent ice crept across her skin in the blink of an eye, and she made a fist to demonstrate what she'd hit him with.

"Ah, well, that certainly explains why it felt like I was being punched by an armored fist."

"I'm _so_ sorry."

Revel laughed and winced. "It's alright. You did warn me before Christmas that if I snuck into your room I'd be taking my life in my own hands."

"I know, but I'm still—"

The Captain put a finger against her lips, silencing her. "It's alright, Elsa. Just…help me to the bed."

Elsa nodded and helped him stand. He leaned heavily on her and ground his teeth against the pain slowly starting to spread along his left side.

"I think you might have cracked a rib," he managed as she eased him down onto the feather soft mattress. He lay on the flat of his back after kicking off his shoes, hand still pressed firmly against his side. Biting her bottom lip, Elsa ran to her vanity and fetched a glass of water and a damp washcloth. The Captain thanked her for the water and drank his fill before quirking an eyebrow at the cloth.

"I think you got all the blood off me with your sleeve."

"I know just…take off your shirt," she said with focused concentration.

Deciding to do as she asked rather than teasing her, Revel attempted to remove his shirt but ran into trouble when he couldn't lift his left arm high enough because of the pain. Elsa helped him the rest of the way and made an apologetic noise when she saw the large black bruise spreading across the Captain's ribs.

"I can't see it; how bad does it look?"

"I'm so, so sorry," Elsa said by way of reply and gently pressed the cloth against his side. Revel snarled at the pain and arched away from her, but she didn't withdraw. Instead, she pushed her ice into the cloth and instantly cooled it. After a moment, frost began appearing atop the fabric and Revel's shallow breathing evened out a bit.

"That…actually feels a great deal better. Thank you."

Elsa smiled and had Revel roll onto his right side so that the iced cloth could remain over his ribs.

"I feel awful about doing that to you," she said crawling into bed next to him.

"No need to apologize…again. It was entirely my fault for not thinking that you'd actually use what I taught you. I should actually be praising you. If I had been an assassin, I'd be in the dungeons right now, or worse. I'm proud I could teach you to defend yourself."

"I don't think I remembered anything you taught me in that moment. It felt like I was moving on instinct."

"Oh trust me, those strikes were dead on perfect. Don't discount your abilities, Elsa. You've absorbed what I've taught you as much as any of my guards have, maybe even more. Fact of the matter remains, you still managed to fell an opponent with," Revel paused to think, "four strikes. Not bad. Not bad, indeed."

Elsa blushed and reached for the covers at their feet. "Well, I contribute my success to having an excellent teacher who isn't going anywhere tonight. Not until that bruise I gave you calms down a bit and you can walk without toppling over."

"You could always kiss it better," Revel teased folding his arm under his head and watching the queen with bright green eyes.

"Oh can I now?" Elsa said sitting up on her knees beside him and trailing her icy fingers gently down his bruised side. The Captain gasped and arched against the sudden cold, a wide smile on his face. She withdrew her hand and folded it with the other in her lap, giving her lover a lopsided grin. "But no, I shouldn't tease you. It's hardly fair, what with you being incapacitated and all."

"I would think that would be the best time," Revel replied as his eyes locked with hers. "They'd be solely at your mercy."

Elsa chuckled and felt a familiar burn settle into her abdomen. "Mercy. What a novel idea."

The queen removed her hands from her lap and let them trail across Revel's bare shoulder and chest, grinning like a cat as her touch raised goosebumps across his skin. Removing the frosted cloth, Elsa bent down and trailed her tongue across the bruise, tasting the salty tang of his skin while leaving a trail of frost behind. Revel groaned and shifted, but couldn't get up the gumption to move onto his back.

"You are cruel," he moaned as his love slid down in front of him.

"Am I now? I thought I was helping," Elsa teased.

"Helping things in other places, it seems," Revel groaned and shifted again. The queen's sudden, wicked smile didn't ease the tension building in his pants, and he pulled her to his lips while trying to ignore the now dull ache of his bruised ribs. Their kiss was passion laced and lasted until they needed to break for breath. "So, you've decided to be a tease?"

Elsa tossed her head back and laughed. "Why Captain, isn't that the point of woman? Weren't we put on earth to tempt men into vile, debase acts that would surely make God blush?" As she spoke, she slid her hand down his stomach, his muscles tensing as she went, and slipped her fingers under the hem of his pants. Revel's breath caught in his throat as her cold hand enclosed around him. Elsa smiled devilishly and nuzzled into his neck, breathing lukewarm breaths against the sensitive skin just below his ear.

"Y-you're going to g-give me…frostbite, you know," he tried to say but simple things like forming sentences with his tongue were becoming increasingly difficult. Especially when he wanted to use his tongue in more pleasurable ways.

"I assure you, my ice won't hurt you so long as I will it not to," Elsa purred into his ear, wringing a wave of shivers from him which then ripped into a sharp gasp of discomfort for more than one reason. Before she could say anything more, Revel rolled her onto her back, satisfied that her robe had fallen open in the process. He glimpsed a strange looking blue crystal hanging around her neck, but thought nothing of it. The queen stared up at him with a knowing grin.

"And here I thought you weren't able to move. Maybe I should rethink my invitation for you to stay."

Revel growled throatily and dove into the sweat flesh of her neck, kissing and nipping his way down her body until he reached the destination that had taken over his thoughts. He had every intention of using his mouth and tongue for more than just teasing banter, and by the end of his own brand of teasing, Elsa was gasping and writhing under him like a worm on a hook. Together they brought each other to the edge of madness and beyond, bodies pulsing with orgasmic fire that, after running its course, left the two happily exhausted.

Elsa spooned in close to Revel, beyond satisfied and already drifting into the between stages of sleep. She felt him shift until her found a comfortable position that didn't irritate his bruises, heard him murmur things into her hair, felt herself smile, but couldn't make her mouth form any response. Sighing contentedly, she closed her eyes, drifting to sleep almost instantly, and stumbled into chaos the moment her mind touched the dream world.

* * *

><p>Bodies pressed in on her from every direction; men jostling for footing and screaming at his neighbor, "hold the line!" her ears filling with the sound of iron striking iron, wooden shields splintering, and men dying. She could smell the heady musk of churned earth, the pungent scent of sweating bodies, the iron tang of blood, and the sickening sweet smell of spilt bodily fluids. Panicked, Elsa scrambled backwards, pushing away from the crushing press of the shield wall and the razor sharp pieces of iron reaching out for her. Will-ice dagger in hand, she stumbled into open ground, unsure of where she was or what was happening but knowing she had to get away as fast as possible. Ice powers or no, surrounded by men with swords with no change for escape meant she was as good as dead, or as dead as you could be in a dream. When a cluster of armed warriors rushed her, she immediately sank into her fighter's stance and lashed out only to have her attack fade through one of the men as if he were smoke. Confused, Elsa jumped to the side only to block the path of another charging warrior. Bracing for impact, the queen felt an odd rush of cool air as the man dissolved and reformed a few feet away, his eyes never catching sight of her.<p>

_Am I already dead?_ Elsa thought with a wild thrill of fear as two more warriors walked through her as if she were made out of smoke. _No, not dead. I remember falling asleep next to Revel. I'm just…nonexistent._

Panic leveling out, the queen dissolved her will-ice dagger and scrambled towards higher ground in order to get a better look at the battle she'd been thrown into and hoped to maybe find a reason why she was here. Feet finding purchase in mud that left the rest of the men swarming around her stumbling and swearing, Elsa climbed the rise quickly. She reached the top of the rocky incline where she found a chard oak tree. It's bark was nothing more than white gray ash: it stood sentinel over the chaos below. As she reached the shade, she heard a shout go up from the battlefield and turned to survey the chaos.

The land below her was an unfamiliar territory. A wide valley unrolled under her like a green carpet, flanked on either side by an imposing forest that looked to be on fire. A spindly river bisected the valley, its waters churned into muddy paste as hundreds of boots marched through it. Elsa could see what she suspected was perhaps three thousand men advancing across the valley towards where she stood, all wearing the same yellow and green as the warriors currently engaging a small cluster of leather clad warriors. Off in the distance, behind the shifting clouds of black smoke rising from the tops of the trees, she could see the low humps of mountains rolling along the horizon. A familiar cry sounded above her, and Elsa looked up to see Himmelen circling.

_I see you, Himmelen, now where is your mistress?_

As if in answer to her unspoken question, Elsa heard Saja's voice carry over the din of battle like rolling thunder.

"To me! For up and brace for impact! Shield wall and wait for my command! Spears! Get your fucking spears raised before Earl Elerend's warriors trample us!"

Elsa watched as the swarm of men surrounding Saja thinned and straightened into a somewhat cohesive shield wall, shields overlapping their neighbor creating a solid wall of wood and steel, seconds before a larger force of warriors, men sporting yellow and green clan colors, slammed unmercifully into Saja's men. The wall held for a moment, two tidal forces pressing against one another while spears and swords poked over the top of shields, killing or wounding men on both side. Eventually, the strain on the smaller force was too much, and Saja's line broke like a dam under pressure. Earl Elerend's men poured into the gaps, cutting down great swatches of men as they scrambled to raise their shields and weapons in time. Immediately following the breech, blasts of arctic magic erupted from the tangle, men from both factions flying in any given direction as Saja's power ripped through them.

With her unobstructed view, Elsa watched with wide eyed wonder as the Frost Born plowed through rank after rank of yellow and green clad warriors, ice sword and shield flashing in the watery sunlight. Ducking, weaving, slicing, bumping, punching, stabbing, Saja did it all with such fine precision it looked as if she were dancing rather than fighting for her life. Three men converged on her at once, but Saja didn't seem bothered. Face set with grim determination and spattered with blood, the shield maiden cut each man down, her ice sword cleaving libs from bodies and splitting shields in half as if they were made out of tissue paper. But no matter how many men she killed more always took their place, and before long, Saja and her company were pinned on three sides by the enemy.

"Saja, we need to retreat!" Elsa head a man's voice carry over the din of battle. No, she hadn't heard it carry over the cacophonous roar, she'd heard it as if she were standing right next to him, as if he were speaking into her ear.

_Am I hearing through Saja's ears now?_

"We have to hold them off just a little bit longer! Earl Karlson should be here any minute with reinforcements!" Saja screamed in reply, kicking out the knee of the warrior in front of her and burying her sword in his chest.

"We can't! We've already lost too many men. Saja, please, we have to call a retreat!"

"Then call it, but I'm staying to hold off these sheep fuckers for as long as possible!"

Saja spun and planted the heel of her boot into the groin of a charging warrior, doubling the man over. Using his crumpled form as a boost, she leapt into the air and slammed back into the earth with a resounding boom. Ice erupted under her in a wave of bitter cold, and the men pressing in around her and her band of clustered warriors stumbled on the sheets of ice. It was a welcome diversion, one the queen watching the fray could appreciate, but it wasn't a fix for Saja's predicament. Most of the enemy warriors had metal spikes driven into their shoes that gave them traction on ice, and those few continued attacking with an almost vengeful furry. Still, Saja fought on, using her magic to throw men, impale them, pin them, freeze them, and anything else she could think of, but there were just to many.

"Gunnar, Gunnar! Take Rag and your men and get to higher ground, now! Tell the archers in the cairn we need them yesterday!"

"I'm not leaving without you," the man named Gunnar said as he pulled his sword free from the gut of a dying man while simultaneously burying his axe in the neck of another, blood spattering his already gore slicked face.

"Goddamnit Gunnar, I'm your leader first and your wife second! Just take them and go! I'll hold them off!"

"Like hell you will! Rag!" Gunnar shouted over his shoulder as another man fell to his blade. His sword arm and shoulder was screaming at him, but still he raised and lowered it, knowing if he faltered for a moment it would mean his death.

"A little busy!" a tall, fair haired man, stripped to the waist and covered in blood, replied from a few feet away.

"Take our men and run for the ridge. Saja and I will keep them off your tail."

Rag, a bear of man with tree trunks for arms and a barrel chest that barely contained the muscles rippling under his skin, looked as if he might object to Gunnar's command, but he simply nodded his shaggy blond head and shouted for his men to follow.

Elsa saw the cluster of bloodied warriors climb past her, and realized the cairn Saja and Gunnar had been speaking of was directly behind her. Instinctively, she moved out of the way as more men clambered up the incline at an almost desperate speed. Rag paused and looked back at the two wayward warriors standing in front of an imposing warband and growled with frustration before pulling himself away.

"You ready for the press?" Elsa heard Saja say as Gunnar rejoined her after dispatching a few unlucky souls, effectively clearing a path for them to engage the next wave of enemy warriors making their way up the incline towards the squat cairn behind them.

"I'm ready to go home and end this fuck'n clan warfare," Gunnar replied readjusting his grip on his small axe.

"We share the same thoughts," Saja said with a grim smile. "Get close to me, I'm going to clear us some room and give Rag a head start."

Gunnar stepped behind Saja as she drew on her power, the air around them both dropping to an abominable degree. Using both feet as an anchor, she raised her hands above her head, a silent prayer set to the gods, then brought them down on either side of her as if slamming a hammer against an anvil. A ring of ice quickly surrounded the two and spread out under the feet of the approaching yellow and green clad warriors who slowed their approach to a cautious crawl. Palms down, Saja connected with her ice and fed it an image of what she wanted. Instantly it complied, and hundreds of thin stalagmites of translucent winter shot out of the icy ground like a porcupine springing its quills, impaling any man unlucky enough to be standing near one. Countless screams rose into the air as the Frost Born braced herself and pushed. The ring of deadly ice spikes widened, forcing men to retreat or be skewered. It was an effective attack but one that was hard to duplicate when in a tight press of bodies and unable to tell friend from foe.

"Where's Ragnar?" Saja asked pushing again and launched spikes off the ice base like javelins. Three or four waves of Earl Elerend's men collapsed, dead or dying. Those who were dead acted as flesh and blood buffers for the men climbing over the spike wall towards Saja and Gunnar, and the two warriors readied for another attack.

"Half way up the rise. How many fractures do you have left?"

"Enough to finish this! I'll disperse the rest of my magic once we're far enough away."

"You've used too much already, Saja! We need to get to my brother and get under cover!"

"I know! But we can't run with this many—"

"Duck!"

Gunnar pushed Saja out of the way and raised his shield in time to catch an arrow that would have likely plunged through the Frost Born's shoulder. Immediately, she countered with her own icy projectile, killing the archer before he could string another arrow.

"That was too close. Come on!" Gunnar yelled taking Saja by the arm and dragging her up the incline towards the cairn. Arrows whistled past them as they ran, hand in hand, up the rise, but as they stepped onto a level plateau, Saja felt the brush of Himmelen's thoughts touch hers.

_Mother, there is a squad of enemies climbing the opposite side of the hill towards you. They are hidden behind the cluster of bounders to your left._

Immensely grateful she'd sent Himmelen into the sky, Saja relayed the ice hawk's message to Gunnar and the two readied themselves. Reaching the cluster of boulders, a squad of yellow and green warriors stepped in front of them, effectively cutting them off. They were surprised, however, when the lone warriors didn't pull up in shock.

"Gunnar, turtle back!" Saja yelled as they continued to run full tilt towards the opposing faction who had raised a wobbly shield wall.

Gunnar skidded to a stop a few feet in front of Saja, slung his shield over his back, and hunched over. Saja, still running full tilt, jumped into a flip over her husband's back, sliding on the slick surface of the shield, chambered her magic, and let it erupt as she landed. The shield wall in front of her split down its middle as a wall of ice rose up between the ranks, opening a small pathway for the two warriors. Taking no chances, Gunnar and Saja darted through the tunnel at a breakneck speed, arms and legs pumping. The two were nearly next to Elsa where she stood in shocked silence when an arrow streaked out of the sky and pierced Gunnar in the back. Grunting, he continued to run until a second arrow caught him in the left thigh, toppling him.

"Get up!" Saja screamed as she attempted to pull her husband to his feet. Gunnar grunted with the effort of standing and went down hard onto bent knee when his leg wouldn't hold him.

"Keep going!" he shouted pushing Saja away towards the cairn.

"Not without you!"

"You know I'm going to slow you down, and you have to get to the cairn, Saja. You have to tell Earl Kelvinson about the betrayal. There only needs to be one mouth for that task."

"I'm not leaving you here to die!"

"Go, I'll meet you in Valhalla," Gunnar said pushing her away from him as the line of warriors, now two hundred thick, raced up the incline towards them, not more than fifty yards away.

"You stubborn jackass, we're dying together or not at all!"

Before the first wave of warriors hit them, Gunnar grabbed Saja by the front of her gore stained black chainmail vest and pulled into a crushing kiss. For half a heartbeat he held her close, savoring the taste of her, the softness of her lips, and smell of her distinctive peppermint scent before breaking the connection and physically throwing her farther up the incline.

"Run, Saja!"

The Frost Born barely had time to open her mouth in a cry of protest before the first yellow and green clad warrior struck.

Elsa and Saja both watched in horror as the man's blade sliced a wide red arch through Gunnar's chest, effectively opening him up from his jugular to just above his right armpit. He spun once, eyes wide with shock, before collapsing to his knees in front of Saja, blood gushing from the wound in his neck. Earl Elerend's warrior would have continued through with his momentum and cleaved Gunnar's head clean off his shoulders had Saja not put an ice spike through his chest, her scream echoing so loudly the very earth shook. The approaching warband jogged to a halt. She sank down in front of Gunnar, her hands attempting to stem the flow of blood oozing from his wound, red wetness staining her skin and running down her arms in warm rivers of red.

"Gunnar, no," she choked, eyes glassy with tears. "No, no, no, stay with me! _Don't go!_ Come on, you can fight this…you can…you— oh gods, no…_No!_"

Gunnar went limp in Saja's arm even as he struggled to form words, struggled to tell her to run and that he loved her, eyes staring into blank nothingness. Elsa put a hand over her mouth, tears of her own spilling down her face as she watched Saja sob over her fallen husband, hands clenching his blood soaked tunic so hard her knuckles were turning white. Time seemed to stand still. Even the attacking enemy stopped in order to watch the drama unfolding before them until one man stepped out from behind the shield wall and removed his helmet.

"Surrender yourself to us, winter witch, and we'll leave the cairn untouched," Earl Elerend said from the head of his warband. When he was met with no reply, he sighed dramatically and leaned on his spear. "All of this could have been avoided had you not run from me. I would have spared Gunnar and the rest of them, but _you_ doomed them to die, Saja. Remember that."

Even if this were a dream, Elsa felt the shift in power like a storm front rolling in off the sea. She could smell the scent of mountain frost and felt the bite of bitter winds as they swept over the valley. The buzzing she'd felt under her skin during her first meeting with Saja returned with a vengeance, and all she wanted to do was dig her nails into her arms and claw out the feeling. Dream or not, memory or not, Elsa could feel a different, dark magic enveloping the Frost Born as she clung to the body of her lover and rocked back and forth.

"Our magic can be a terrible thing to behold," Elsa repeated Saja's words in a hushed whisper as she watched the woman closely. She knew something terrible was about to happen but couldn't pull her eyes away from the scene unfolding before her.

The silent moment ended when Saja, sucking in heaving breaths as tears rolled down her face, looked up from the broken body of her lover and _screamed. _The blue of her eyes steadily dissolved into metallic white, ice spread across the ground around her and falling from the overcast sky in fat snowflakes as her fury took control. Earl Elerend scrambled back behind the protection of shields, shouting for his men to stay together.

"I won't let you go," Saja rasped as her magic unconsciously encased Gunnar's body, shifting and creeping over every inch of him like a second, translucent skin. Something inside of her was breaking, Saja could feel it all the way down to her core. It was unclear whether or not it was her mind or her magic, but something was giving way under the force of her despair. "We die together or not at all. That was the deal."

It only took seconds for her magic to permeate every part of him inside and out, to coat every muscle strand, every organ. When it was done, she raised her head, glowing eyes glued on the now petrified warband, and whispered five trembling words into the icy ear of her dead husband.

"So we'll kill them all."

Suddenly fueled by a strange and terrible magic, Gunnar's body lurched to life and slowly stood. The warband took a collective step backwards, eyes shining with a new kind of fear as they watched the reanimated corpse turn towards them in a jerky, stop-motion movement. Saja, black chainmail growing gray and white as if turning to ash as her magic permeated her armor, stepped next to him and roared at the men before charging into the first terrified cluster with the suicidal abandon of a woman who had just lost everything.

Elsa watched in frozen horror as her ancestor charged, but it wasn't the fear of Saja's intended suicide that scared her. It was the ice corpse trudging along after her like a puppet on a string that put such a seizing terror in her soul she thought she'd never be able to move again. Bile forced its way into the back of her throat, and she swallowed hard in order to keep from vomiting.

_This is what Anna could have been,_ she thought numbly as she watched the ice corpse kill warrior after warrior. _This is what I could have turned her into._

The queen of Arendelle knew this was a losing battle; two warriors against two hundred, even if one was a Frost Born, were devastating odds, but something was happening on the battlefield. She could feel the pull of Saja's magic as it manipulated the world around her. Snow fell thick and heavy while freezing winds swept into the valley, but the air around her was…darker. It wasn't until one of the slain enemy warriors rose to his feet with jerky stop-motion movements that Elsa realized what Saja was doing…what Saja had the _power_ to do.

Fallen warriors were quickly being encased in translucent blue ice and rising from their graves. Some were so grievously wounded it was difficult for them to stand or move, but the magic forced them into action regardless, and they turned on their terrified comrades, propelled by Saja's force of will. Now, where there had been only two warriors against two hundred, the tides were turning in the Frost Born's favor as every man killed by her, or her reanimated corpses, fell under her command.

Her arm rose and fell hundreds of times as she cut down any man in her way. Above, the storm bearing down on the valley grew in intensity, blood and snow falling together like a mismatched rain, beauty and death married for a frozen moment in time. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Gunnar and the other ice warriors take blow after blow, but, since their bodies were encased in ice as powerful as Saja's will, not a single blade pierced the aquamarine shell. Even the dozens of arrows fired at close range weren't enough to break the Frost Born's ice. It was unclear how long and how hard Saja and her reanimated warriors fought, one moving at an almost superhuman speed while the others delivered blow after blow with a jerky fluidity that was both inhuman and terrifying. Earl Elerend's men, after witnessing Saja savagely decapitate their Earl, fled the incline, throwing down their weapons and running as the corpses lumbered after them on stiff, unyielding legs.

Eventually, when there was no one left to fight, Saja dropped her numb arms and watched the retreating warband, breaths coming in so hard and so fast she thought she was going to pass out. The blizzard swirling around her continued to rage, bands of snow blowing almost horizontally at the behest of the wickedly strong wind. The storm would chase the men back to their settlement, back to their homes, and rage for days, likely killing the village in the process. Saja was fine with that. Stiffly, she turned towards her collection of dead warriors and stared at them with cold, hard eyes. After a moment of calculated deliberation, she seemed to reach a decision and raised her hand, calling her ice back to her. The bodies of nearly a hundred men simultaneously crumpled to the ground. Only one remained standing. Only one truly mattered.

"We did it, Gunnar. We did it," Saja whispered, eyes blurring as exhaustion set in. The ice corpse of Gunnar stopped moving, head lolling to one side exposing the horrific gash in his neck that had very nearly taken his head off. Blood and other bodily fluids caked the dead warrior from the chest down, and Elsa, still standing in fixed horror not thirty feet away, found it hard to look at the creature for more than a few seconds.

_I have to get out of here. I have to wake up. Why can't I wake up?_

Slowly, Saja stumbled over to her dead husband on stiff legs that matched his. Reaching up, she gently wiped away the blood from his face and stared into eyes that no longer saw her, that no longer held any life save for the mockery she'd bestowed on him with her magic.

"I don't want to let you go," Saja suddenly choked and put a hand against Gunnar's cheek, tears spilling down her face. Unknown to her, a small band lead by Rag had descended from the cairn and stopped a few feet away, staring wide eyed at the ice corpse and the woman responsible for making him.

"I love you," Saja whispered and kissed the man that had once been her soul mate, who had won her heart and forged a love for her out of battle and chaos, gently on his forehead.

"I love you," the ice corpse mimicked Saja's words, and the Frost Born felt like someone had torn her heart out through her back.

With a shaky wave of her hand, the magic surrounding Gunnar disappeared and he crumpled to the ground, dead for the rest of eternity. Saja fell with him, head pressed against his ice cold chest as fresh tears fell from her eyes and she screamed until her throat bled.

Elsa felt tears of her own slide down her face, a choking sob squeezed from her throat. This had been what Saja had been hinting at when she'd spoken to her about what could have happened with Anna. This was the pain she'd seen veiled behind the woman's ancient eyes. Suddenly, a hand clamped around her arm and she let out a startled scream and spun. The Saja she knew, the woman wearing fur and leather and chainmail, stood behind her with such pain in her azure eyes the queen took a reflexive step away from her.

"Who gave you the right to make me relive this?" Saja all but sobbed as she pointed an accusing finger at the carnage and tragedy before them, fighting to keep her emotions at bay but failing miserably.

"I…I didn't mean…I don't even know how—"

"You touched the brand with _troll_ magic!?" Saja stepped back, disgust and rage warring for dominance over her face. "You stupid, ignorant girl! Do you know what forces you were playing with? What you could have done? And of all the horrors in my life, you had to bring this one to the surface?!"

Elsa opened her mouth to object, to tell the woman it had all been a misunderstanding, that she had no knowledge of troll magic, that she hadn't meant or wanted to see anything of Saja's past, but before she could the Frost Born reached out and gripped the brand on Elsa's shoulder. White hot pain erupted from the mark, and she screamed.

"Go back," Saja roared and shoved her descendent as hard as she could backwards, "and stay out of my memories! And if you ever call me with troll magic again, I swear to all the gods above and below, I _will_ kill you!"


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Wow, this chapter just would not let me write it. Fought me tooth and nail. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I had to scrap it and start over, and I'm so glad it's done! You guys, my readers, are seriously the most patient people I've met. Thank you for being so understanding and not freaking out when I don't update weekly. Anyway, here's 15 for your reading pleasure. As always, I'd love to hear what you think so REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Also, bug me on tumblr. I swear I don't bite!

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><p>Blurriness and pain gave way to blackness and pain. It felt as if Elsa fell through the void of time for an eternity until she slammed back into her bed with such force the mattress bucked under the sudden, unexpected landing. Scrambling for purchase, she grabbed ahold of the sheets as she skidded across her bed and would have fallen off the opposite side had Revel not been there to take the fall for her. With a startled yelp, he tumbled to the floor in a tangle of sheets, suddenly very awake and aware that something was wrong. Out of reflex, he sprang to his feet, body poised in a fighters stance ready to counter an attack, but none came. At least, not the type of attack he'd been expecting.<p>

"Elsa? Elsa, what's wrong?" Revel asked as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He could see her curled into an impossibly tight ball at the edge of the bed, right hand clamped down over her left shoulder.

The queen tried to speak, tried to make her tongue form words, but the pain radiating from the brand on her skin was enough to take her wits from her, and all she could do was fight back the screams building in her throat by gnashing her teeth and shivering. And while her body shook with pain, her head swam with images she couldn't comprehend. It seemed as if her and Saja's memories were bleeding together like two jars of different colored ink tipped over onto a slick wood table. Elsa couldn't tell where one memory began and another ended, and the madness of so many jumbled sights, sounds, smells and sensations was putting her body into sensory overload. She vaguely heard Revel ask her what was wrong, but she certainly felt it when he scooped her into his arms in an attempt to move her back into the middle of her bed and heard her voice as she screamed into his shoulder.

"You need to tell me what's wrong," he said with as much firm gentility as he could muster while trying not to panic. "Is it your magic? Did something hurt you? Did I hurt you?" When she didn't respond, Revel took her face in his hands and turned her towards the weak moonlight streaming in through the triangular window. Elsa's eyes were open but they were hazy and unfocused. She stared past him as if he weren't there, as if she were watching something happening far off in the distance, and all the while her labored breath washed across his face in frigid waves.

Panicked now, he lit the small lamp on the table beside her bed and pulled up short when he saw the mark on her shoulder. Earlier that night, the strange handprint had been a shimmery metallic color, hardly noticeable unless he looked for it. Now, however, the skin had turned an angry black and the edges looked to be rimmed in frost.

"What's happening?" he breathed and tried to gently remove her hand so he could get a better look. That seemed to rouse her a bit. Her eyes cleared fractionally, and she stared up at him in utter confusion before the pain set in again and she screwed her eyes shut against the agony.

"Let me see." Revel reaching for her hand again. Elsa shook her head violently and tried to turn away from him, but he caught her and rolled her onto her back. "Elsa, stop. I need to see what's wrong. Something's not right."

"Please. It — oh God, oh God — please make it stop," she choked, eyes brimming with tears.

"I know, love; I know. Please, let me help."

Lacking the will to fight him much longer, Elsa removed her hand from her shoulder and turned her head away so that Revel could see what was happening for himself. Careful not to jostle her, he bent low and examined the handprint in the light of the table lamp, stunned by how dark the mark had become. This close, he could feel the chilling cold rising from the brand like heat haze off hot stones.

"Is this your magic doing this?"

Elsa shook her head and began to shake with the effort of keeping her own magic at bay. Her body knew she was in pain and wanted to react, but with Revel so close she couldn't trust herself to let it out safely. So, she weathered the back build of power with white knuckle determination. That is, until Revel unexpectedly laid his own hand across the mark and immediately regretted his rash decision. The pain that exploded through both their bodies was cataclysmic. Elsa arched off the bed, throat clamping shut even as she tried to scream, and Revel rocked back with the force of the magic sizzling up his arm and dispersing across his chest. He would have removed his hand if he could, but a thick layer of ice had instantly encased his hand, locking it to the queen's shoulder.

Body curling in on itself involuntarily, Revel gasped as an overwhelming cold crept up his spine and wrapped around his head with arctic fingers. Suddenly, the world around him fell away as hundreds of images flooded his mind like the sporadic flashing of heat lightning.

_Flash_—

He saw a woman that could only be described as winter incarnate, pale skin, white hair, and the gray eyes of a wolf, watching a young girl no older than perhaps eight build creations with ice magic.

_Flash_—

The same wintery woman stands next to another woman who was nearly identical to Elsa in every way save for her hair and eyes. She holds the body of a man and screams at the heavens with what could only be described as pure anguish.

_Flash_—

The same woman who looked like Elsa stands next to a blond haired man, her stomach swollen with child.

_Flash_—

Elsa's double wears a crown of ice and gold and is seated on a modest throne.

_Flash_—

A happy family, mother and husband play with four children of varying ages.

_Flash_—

Three graves for three little bodies, and a blizzard unlike anything Revel had ever seen raging in a village burnt to ash.

_Flash_—

A crucifix breaks apart on a table as a spike of ice is driven through the tiny edifice of Christ.

_Flash_—

The wintery woman with white hair and wolf gray eyes cradling the body of Elsa's double in her arms as she entered a misty cave surrounded to strange looking boulders.

The last flash lingered a little longer that the rest before the connection was suddenly severed, and Revel fell into blackness.

He woke some time later on his own accord, head pounding as if it had been used as a croquette ball. Reluctant to open his eyes but knowing it was necessary, he cracked them infinitesimally and wasn't surprised at all to find himself staring at one of the ornate feet of Elsa's bed.

_I must have fallen off._

Shaking the cloying hands of unconsciousness from his body, Revel attempted to sit up and felt his body voice its displeasure at being moved. His ribs were still bruised and aching, adding to his growing headache. Falling off the bed, he'd landed on his left side, waking more displeased shouts as he attempted to shift onto his stomach. But the pain that overrode everything else seemed to be the fiery heat radiating from his right palm. The room was still dark, but the table lamp had remained lit, so he pulled himself into a sitting position with his left hand and examined his right in the orange light. Most of the skin of his right palm was gone, the bloody raw tissue gleaming in the weak light.

_It's like I've been burned._

His mind flashed back to the moment six years ago when he'd cradled an unconscious Elsa in his arms as he followed Kai and Gerda to an open guest room. The queen had collapsed in her chambers after the news of her parent's death. Revel had caught a glimpse of the wounds on her body caused by her power, had seen the ruin that had been her hands, and his skin looked eerily similar to her wounds.

Thinking about Elsa snapped his mind back to the present and he scrambled to his feet. She sat motionless against the headboard of her bed, knees against her chest and arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Her wide, vacant eyes, stared past the large triangular window as her breath came in fast and shallow. Revel could see a streak of bright crimson trailing down her left arm and focused his attention on that in order to give himself the motivation to move despite his body's angry protests.

"Elsa?" he said, cautiously easing himself onto the edge of the bed. She didn't respond, didn't seem to even see or hear him, and the Captain recognized the symptoms of shock immediately. It was unclear whether or not she was hurt anywhere else aside from her shoulder, so to be safe, Revel quickly dressed his own wound by cutting strips of cloth from her bed sheets and winding them around his hand before attempting to untangle her from the ball she was scrunched into.

"Listen to my voice. You're alright, but I need you to come back to me. I'm right here, right in front of you." With the back of his left hand, he trailed his fingers down her cheek and jaw. He felt her shift slightly and saw her lips move, but couldn't understand what she'd said. Her lips moved again as she began repeating the same thing over and over again.

"I didn't want to see."

"Didn't want to see what?" Revel watched tears well in her eyes and roll down her cheeks, and still she kept repeating the same thing. Then he realized with a thrill of shock that she must have seen the same things he had. Taking her face in his hands and ignoring the pain of his right hand, he leaned in close and put his forehead against her.

"What did you see?"

"Everything," she whispered, cold breath washing across his face.

Revel jerked back and raised her head, searching her face. Slowly, the vacancy in Elsa's eyes dissipated, and she focused on him. The Captain breathed a sigh of relief and wrapped her in his arms, holding her tightly. There was always a chance when someone went into shock they wouldn't recover from it quickly. He'd seen it happen before and had experienced the effects for himself, but how the victim's recovery depended solely on their strength of will. It was a relief that Elsa was steadily rising out of the hazy fog of confusion and blackness. After a long, silent moment, the queen seemed to regain her senses and sagged into her lover, well beyond the point of exhausted.

"I'm going to lay you down and clean the blood from your shoulder," Revel murmured into her ear. She nodded her head weakly and allowed him to lay her back against her pillows. He found a basin of water on her vanity and brought it over, thankful there had also been a washcloth next to it.

"Seems I'm always cleaning blood off you somehow or another," he remarked with a forced smile as he bent over her and began gently wiping the blood away. The handprint wasn't as black as it had been, nor as cold, and it didn't seem to be giving the queen any pain now.

_That or she's numbed to it._

"You saw her too," Elsa said after a stretch of silence. Revel stopped wiping at her shoulder and looked down at her, brow scrunched.

"I…I don't know who or what I saw."

"Saja. You were seeing Saja, my ancestor."

"The woman who looked like you, that was Saja?"

Elsa nodded, continuing to stare at the ceiling. "Yes. She's been coming to me in my dreams and speaking to me. That's where the handprint came from. It's her mark and how she communicates with me."

Revel leaned back and set the bloodied cloth back in the basin. He knew she wasn't lying, didn't have the capacity to lie at the moment, but the implications of what she was telling him were fantastical at best. Dream visits from an ancestor? Magical handprints that connect the living to the dead?

_Fool, you're in love with a woman who conjures ice as easily as breathing. How is what she's saying farfetched in any way?_

"The mark on your shoulder had almost faded away until tonight. What happened? Does this happen whenever she comes to your in your sleep?" he asked cautiously.

"No, I made her angry," the queen said, and Revel could hear the fear and sorrow in her voice. A wayward tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and disappeared into her mussed hair at her temple. "She's been teaching me about my powers and how to better control them. I hadn't seen her in a while, and I had questions for her, so I tried to summon her with my magic…only something went wrong." Her voice began to shake as more tears spilled from her shinning blue eyes, fingers curling around the crystal lying against her chest. "I didn't know," she choked.

"Know what?" he asked gently, moving stray hairs away from her face and attempting to thumb away her tears.

"That I was summoning her with troll magic. I…I thought it had just been my magic touching the mark but..." Whatever else she was going to say fell away as the storm of emotions she'd been trying to hold at bay finally broke through her defenses. Heavy sobs wracked her small frame, and she buried her face in her hands, curling into a ball on her side. Revel, at a loss as to how to help her, wrapped her in his arms and held her close.

It would take quite some time before she settled down enough to do more than even out her breathing, and by then her exhaustion had sapped the last ounce of consciousness from her. As Elsa slipped into a fitful sleep, Revel continued to hold her, confused and disturbed by the night's events, but unwilling to leave her side. He couldn't explain what he'd seen or felt in those moments while connected with the queen. Perhaps it had been a form of fever dream brought on by the pain of her magic. Perhaps it had been a glimpse into the past, as Elsa had said. Whatever it had been, it had shaken Revel to his core, but there was one thing he knew for certain: he would not be letting Elsa sleep alone from now on. Not when the threat of an attack from unseen forces could come in the night. And he was good on his promise; he didn't let Elsa sleep alone from that night on, sneaking into her room through the bookcase passage and staying with her until just before sunrise.

At first, Elsa had objected to the idea when Revel approached the subject the evening after her nighttime attack. They had met in the guard tower under the cover of darkness as they had for months now, only no training would be had this evening. Instead, Revel dedicated the rest of the night to making certain he got his point across to his lover and was also able to clear up his training chamber from the cluttered mess it had become in preparation to the Summit.

"Absolutely not. What if someone walks in? What if someone catches us? How are we going to explain ourselves?"

"Then ice your door at night," Revel had said with a casual shrug as he rolled a few large barrels of unfinished knife blades across the training chamber floor. He needed them polished, sharpened, and fitted for handles before the Trade Summit began in two weeks' time. Most of Arendelle's blacksmiths were already overloaded with orders, so the Captain would put his men to work the next morning assembling the daggers. It would be a nice reprieve for them before the week of hell that the Spring Trade Summit usually turned into, as well as providing a chance to teach some of the newer recruits how to assemble their own knives. It was an invaluable skill when oftentimes there was only enough money to supply the guards with a single small knife for personal use. Most of the older guards had made their own weapons and carried those on them as a way to both stand out amongst their peers and to assure themselves they knew what weapon they were fighting with.

"What if my ice fails?" Elsa countered as she helped him with two more barrels, these filled with jars of powder dye and unspun sheep's wool. Until the new store house was finished, which according to the master craftsman would be later that week, the guard tower and Revel's training chamber had become a safe place to store tradable goods.

"Elsa, when has your ice ever failed you?"

"I—"

"Can't think of a single moment off the top of your head," Revel interrupted and dashed a kiss on her cheek.

"My ice arrow," she said stubbornly, crossing her arms over her chest after securing her barrel against the others.

"I broke that with a fair amount of force, so it's safe to believe that in order for someone to break the ice on your door they'd have to hit it pretty hard. I'm sure we'd wake up before that."

"That's not the point, Revel. I don't want to risk—"

The Captain put a finger to her lips, effective silencing her. "It's a risk we'll just have to take, because I'm not going to let you sleep alone. Not after that night attack you suffered."

"It…it wasn't an attack," Elsa sighed, lowering her eyes. She knew there was no arguing with Revel when he latched on to something, and, truth be told, she was actually grateful for his presence at night. Just having him close put the queen's mind at peace which was something she desperately needed as the Trade Summit neared.

So Revel began sleeping in the queen's quarters despite her previous objections. To Elsa's great relief, the mark on her shoulder had all but faded into obscurity once again over the course of a couple of nights. If only the memories of what she had seen while connected to the Frost Born's mind would fade as well. She could conjure the disturbing images into her conscious thought without much effort and examine them with frightening clarity. When she closed her eyes, the images became even more intensely vivid. She could still see the bright spray of Gunnar's blood, smell the irony tang in the air. She could feel Saja's rage, the cold more bitter than any high mountain air, but what scared her the most was remembering the jerky stop-motion movement of the ice corpses. Battle and bloodshed she was capable of weathering, but seeing the corpses rise again with new, terrible, stone cold life had scared her more than anything. It was a reminder of what she almost did to Anna.

_It truly was a fate worse than death,_ Elsa thought with a shiver as she continued to help Revel stack barrels.

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><p>"We are not naming our child Harald," Anna said leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. Less than two weeks separated the royal family from the Trade Summit, and she and Kristoff had been spending the majority of their time in the library recently trying to decide on names for the baby, and neither of them were getting anywhere. Anna couldn't tell if it was the stress of helping her sister or Kristoff's unease about choosing the perfect name, but the princess's patience was starting to fray along the edges at the same rate of her husband's.<p>

"How is Harald a bad name for a boy? It's better than Alf or Erling," the mountain man countered, looking up from the book he'd been thumbing through.

"It just doesn't seem to fit," Anna explained with an exasperated sigh.

"Well, if we're going that route, might as well not name him for a year and wait and see what name fits him best as he grows. And we're still under the assumption you're having a boy. What about if there's a little girl growing in there?"

"A mother knows her children," the princess said lifting her chin slightly. "I can tell this is definitely a boy rolling around in my stomach. He flails just like you do when you're excited."

"I do not _flail_," Kristoff muttered and returned to the book of ancestral names Anna had found. "Why does he have to have a Nordic name? Why can't we name him something different?"

"It's tradition. Either he gets a Nordic name or a Christian one, and you seem to be against the latter of the two, so Nordic it is."

It wasn't that Kristoff disliked Christian names; he just found them irritatingly bland and generic. During his life as an ice harvester, he'd interacted with countless clients with names like Sarah or Joseph or Mary or Simon, and rising into the ranks of the elite hadn't changed the names either. So no, his son or daughter needed a name that would both command attention and respect as well as stick in the memory.

"What about Beldesh or Carvem?"

"Where do you see those names anywhere in that book?" Anna asked quirking an eyebrow.

"They aren't in the book. Those are troll names."

"How are we going to explain the origins of those names to people?"

"Do we have to?"

Anna planted her elbows on the table and stared at her husband. "Yes. Bishop Arren will ask for the meaning behind the name, and if we tell him they're troll names…I'm not quite sure how he'll react. I suspect badly since trolls really aren't smiled to fondly on in the Catholic religion."

Kristoff scrunched his face into a scowl. "Why does it matter? It's _our_ baby, not Arren's or the Church's. If we want to give it a troll name then we can damn well do that!"

"Kristoff, you don't understand—"

"No, I don't understand!" he said rising angrily from his chair and snatching up the book that was now completely useless to him. He found the empty hole where it belonged in the rows of bookcases and slammed it back in place. "Why do you royals give your religion so much power over every aspect of your life? Why does everything have to be approved by the Church before you ever make a move?"

"Because that's just the way it's been," Anna answered with a deep sigh. This wasn't the first time her husband had become angry when the subject of religion and the Church had been broached. Most of the fights they'd shared while courting had involved Anna's religion and Kristoff's inability to understand why she was forced to function under so many constricting and pointless rules. Eventually they had agreed to disagree, but now the tension had been rekindled because they had to have a baby name ready for Arren once Anna gave birth.

"It's irritating and controlling!" Kristoff shouted pointing to the door. "We should be the ones who choose what to name our child, and the Church be damned! They don't have the final say in our lives!"

Anna looked startled by his words, but she wasn't the one who jumped three feet into the air when a blast of icy air hit Kristoff in the back. Spinning, he stared at the queen as she stepped into the library and quietly closed the door behind her, cerulean orbs shinning in the warm sunlight. He could tell by the rigid set of her stance she wasn't happy.

"There are certain things I will not tolerate in my palace, brother-in-law, and speaking ill of the Church is one of them," Elsa said as she walked further into the room. Without glancing back, she flicked her wrist towards the door and iced it closed, ensuring no one could enter or leave without her consent. The sudden unease rolling off Kristoff was almost palpable.

"Elsa, please," Anna said standing as quickly as she could managed, "he was just—"

"I know what he was," Elsa interrupted, flicking her eyes towards her sister before returning her piercing stare to the mountain man, "and I can understand his frustration. This is a stressful time for you both, and sometimes a slip of the tongue is bound to happen, but please, police your tongue a little better in the future." Lowering her voice, the queen stepped closer to Kristoff and gave him a wan smile, "My sister and I are bound to the Church through our bloodline and tradition. We have no choice but to obey the laws created by our ancestors, but that does not mean we enjoy following them. There are many aspects of our laws that she and I dislike, but until they can be discreetly changed they must be followed _by everyone_. Do I make myself clear?"

Kristoff pulled back, genuinely surprised. He'd expected Elsa to be angry with him for speaking heresy against the Church, but apparently there was more to the queen then he understood. "Y-yes, I understand."

"Excellent. Also, remember this. Walls can have ears, Kristoff. I trust my staff, but if you are overheard speaking like you just were by anyone, there is a chance they will come to me with a complaint. Do not make things hard on you and your budding family. I understand your frustration," Elsa sighed and clasped her hands in front of her, "I really do, but you must keep your opinions to yourself or speak them quietly. Now, as far as baby names go, I will have the final say in what your child will be named, not bishop Arren. He will recognize the name through the Church, but he does not have the final say. One of the many laws I've been revamping within the last few months."

"I…um…thank you, Elsa," Kristoff said feeling heat rise into his cheeks as his anger fell away. "And I'm sorry for making a scene."

Elsa smiled fondly at her brother-in-law and moved towards the table where Anna stood looking just a little paler than normal. "You're welcome. Have either of you at least narrowed the search?"

"No," Anna said sitting back down in her chair and putting her face in her hands. For a moment, she had thought Elsa was going to rip into her husband about his rash words. Now that she knew her sister wasn't angry, and that she wouldn't have to jump in to save a floundering Kristoff, her body shook with the excess adrenalin coursing through her veins. Elsa seemed to notice the change in her and walked up behind her, putting a cool hand on the back of Anna's neck.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, it's…this whole searching for baby names is a lot harder than I thought it would be," Anna replied and moaned lightly as her sister's cold fingers began to kneed the tight knots in her neck. "Oh, that feels good."

Elsa smiled and kept massaging as she looked over Anna's shoulder at the list of possible names. A few stood out, but none were anything she'd ever name a child, hers or otherwise. "Well, what about Sygard?"

"Great grandfather's name?" Anna inquired turning to look her sister.

The queen shrugged. "Or we can go farther back in our history and name him Ivar or Jostein." Elsa felt a twinge on her left shoulder and twitched, unsure why the handprint hidden there was suddenly tingling. Ignoring it, she continued, "I've always been fond of the name Jorik or Iona appealing."

"I kind of like the sound of Ivar." Kristoff shrugged and took his seat across from his wife.

"You would," Anna said making a face and sticking out her tongue. "Ivar was a warrior king who helped establish Arendelle as a stable kingdom."

"Well, then the name seems perfect."

"If you are certain you're having a boy, you could always name him Eugene," Elsa said offhandedly.

"Absolutely not," Kristoff said sitting up straighter at the same time Anna's eyes lit up.

"What's wrong with the name Eugene? My cousin is married to a man with that name," Anna sniffed defensively.

"It's an embarrassing name. What boy wants a name like that? And, as I recall, Rapunzel's Eugene lived under the alias of Flynn Rider for exactly that reason."

"I see nothing wrong with the name," Anna countered. "Eugene is a wonderfully sweet man, unlike you, mister grumpy-pants."

The two began to argue good-naturedly again, and Elsa thought it best she leave them to their name hunting. As she un-iced the door and left, she glanced back at the two and smiled, happy to see them so engaged in their child's life even before it was born. Her smile morphed into a sad frown and she sighed as she shut the door quietly, gently pressing a hand against her stomach. Yes, it was wonderful seeing how happy Kristoff and Anna were, but it was also a bitter sweet happiness for the queen.

_Will I ever know the kind of happiness Anna feels right now? Will I ever get the chance to be a mother?_

The thought both terrified and thrilled her. It would be the continuation of her bloodline, much like it was with Anna, but it would also be a chance for her to set things right in her mind. Elsa didn't blame her parents for what they had done to her when her powers began manifesting in a dangerous way, but she wanted to prove to herself and the world that the Snow Queen was just as capable of being a normal woman and loving mother as the rest of the women in her kingdom.

* * *

><p>"So they're having trouble coming up with baby name?" Revel asked as he slid into bed next to Elsa and pulled her close. For a brief moment she let him hold her, let the warmth of his bare chest ease the tension in her back and shoulders that she'd been carrying around all day.<p>

"Differences of opinion," Elsa replied.

"I know how that goes," Revel mumbled into her shoulder.

The queen turned and stared sharply at him. "Oh? Have you had to choose a baby name for someone before?"

"Not for anyone attached to me," Revel said a little wounded. "A few of my guards are family men, and I've heard them lamenting before about how difficult their wives are being with deciding on a name for the child. A few times they've asked me for my opinion."

"Oh, I…I didn't mean to assume," Elsa said quietly turning back around. It was still remarkable just how jealous she could get at the thought of another woman being with Revel. "I'm sorry."

_I think that's something I need to work on._

"It's alright," he assured her and nuzzled into her neck. Elsa squeaked and curled into herself, stifling a string of giggles by pressing her face into the pillows under her and swatting half-heartedly at Revel. After a moment, her lover relented and set his head back down on the pillow.

"Do _you_ have any favorite baby names?" Elsa shyly asked after a moment.

"I've never given the idea of fathering a child much thought," he admitted. "But that's not to say I wouldn't like to have a family someday," Revel added quickly when he felt Elsa deflate fractionally with disappointment. "A few names have stuck with me over the years. If I had a son…" he thought for a few moments, "I think I'd name him Hagan."

"And if you had a daughter?" Elsa inquired softly.

"Isotta, after my mother."

"They're beautiful names," the queen said fighting back a wide yawn.

"You're tired," Revel commented pulling the covers up around them.

"What was your first clue," Elsa said speaking through another yawn. "I swear I'm going to take a small vacation after the Summit is over."

"A wonderful idea. You of all people need a break."

"Maybe we could sail around the coast for a little while, just be away from everyone," Elsa slurred as she shifted until comfortable and sleep gently pulled her under.

Revel leaned over and kissed her temple gently. He knew it was just idle pre-sleep talk and that she wasn't thinking clearly. The Captain of the Guard accompanying his queen on a private tour of the coast was a scandal waiting to happen, and he'd never put his lover in that kind of situation. Still, the idea made him smile. The two of them alone on a ship with no one to judge them, no one to hide from; he could be with her fully and without fear.

"Maybe someday we can," he whispered before laying back.

* * *

><p>Elsa was surprised that when she opened her eyes she was standing in the middle of a pine forest clearing, towering emerald fur giants standing sentinel around her. The rich scent of the pine was almost overpowering as the breeze stirred the needled branches. She turned in a slow circle taking in her surroundings, twilight painting the sky above in hues of lavender, pink and red. Thankfully, no army waiting for her this time. No scrambling shield wall or dying men or angry Frost Born; just the simplicity of standing in the middle of a forest—<p>

"Nothing is ever simple, Elsa. Not even a forest."

The queen spun in the direction of the familiar voice and backed away from Saja, hand's raised in the off chance she had to defend herself. After her last encounter, she wasn't going to take any chances of being caught off guard. Dream or not, the pain that could follow her back into the waking world was enough of a sharp reminder of how powerful and long Saja's reach really was.

The Frost Born watched her descendant with barely contained exasperation, but there was also an apologetic quality to her stance. She wasn't standing ramrod straight, wasn't commanding instant respect by the square set of her shoulders or the frigidness of her stare. Instead, Saja slouched as if greatly tired. Her eyes, though still remaining razor sharp, seemed dulled.

"I did not bring you here to fight, Elsa," she eventually said with a sigh.

"Forgive me if I don't believe you outright," Elsa replied, her body still tensed for attack.

"I admit that you've not seen me at my best recently, and that is my fault. This is the first time I've spoken to someone tangible in four hundred years, so my manners are a bit rough. We also come from two different ways of life, you and I, so forgive an old woman her shortcomings. I truly didn't bring you here to fight."

"More lessons then?" Elsa asked lowering her hands fractionally.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. You expressed interest in knowing why my arms are the way they are, and I thought it was time I showed you." Saja moved around Elsa with slow, measured steps, the index finger of her right hand tapping her chin thoughtfully. After two rotations, she gave a satisfied grunt and stepped back.

"I may have to resend my previous assumption that you need training with your ice. As far as I can tell, you've taught yourself how to use your powers quite effectively. There are techniques you could stand to learn, how our ice interacts with the world around us and how we have the ability to wreak havoc on a flesh and blood being, but overall you are not ignorant in the ebb and flow of your powers. Your lover has also schooled you well in the art of combat, so I do not need to touch on that subject. So, what is there left to teach you that you haven't already learned through instinct and experimentation?"

"Why did you bring me here if you didn't know?" Elsa frowned as her wariness gave way to irritation. She would like a consistent week of peaceful, uninterrupted sleep, and her fear was quickly turning to annoyance. "What's the point of these visitations if you're not going to teach me something valuable?"

Saja's eyes flashed dangerously, but the Frost Born kept whatever sharp remark she'd formed to herself. "I can see you have my quick tongue. That can be a greater weapon than any amount of power, but it can also get people killed. Watch yourself in the future."

"Threatening me isn't going to help matters between us," the queen rumbled.

"What I will show you tonight," Saja said ignoring Elsa's last statement, "are the dangers of exceeding the limits of your magic, and in doing so I'll also reveal your misguided trust of the trolls."

This time, Elsa felt her irritation flare into hot anger. "You do not get to dictate whether or not anything I do is misguided. The trolls have helped my family for generations. Pabbie himself saved Anna when I struck her with my powers and later saved me when an assassin's blade broke off under my ribs."

"Oh yes, they've done wonders for our bloodline," Saja chuckled mirthlessly, "but have you ever stopped to wonder why? Why would creatures born from the earth, with no connection or relation to humans, with no need for our presence on earth, suddenly seem to want to help a human family? Why would they care what happened to us?"

"Father always said it was because we controlled the land and where people could expand their settlements. Arendelle skirts the troll kingdom by at least ten miles, so the trolls repay us for keeping people away from them by helping us when we need it."

Saja was silent for a moment before bursting out in a spasm of rancorous laughter. "Your father was even more misguided than you, and a fool! Really? The trolls thankful to_ us_ for not trespassing on _their_ land? Oh no, you've got it completely backwards. It's the trolls who control the land and were your kingdom was built. They control the ore you mine from the ground and wood you clear from the forest. If you ever encroached on their land without permission, I assure you that whatever settlement was raised would disappear from existence the next day."

"Arendelle has prospered and expanded since my grandfather's reign," Elsa said lifting her chin. "If what you say is true, then how is it we've been able to hunt, log, and mine without incident? If the trolls are really that malevolent, why haven't they attacked the ice harvesters or the loggers or the trappers?"

"Because then you would know the true extent of their power."

"Convenient," Elsa said tilting her head to one side. "You tell me they are evil creatures but that they will never show their true nature because that would reveal their secret. What's the point of hiding who you are when everyone already knows? I can't help but feel you have a bigoted view of the trolls."

"Do not," Saja warned, "make light of what has happened to me because of trolls. And regardless, they aren't going to draw attention to themselves because, like any creature, they can be hunted." The soft glow in her eyes a promise for future pain should she be pushed.

Elsa understood Saja's message and shivered. Had the trolls been hunted? Had _she_ been the one doing the hunting? She asked as much and wasn't surprised when the Frost Born leveled an icy look at her, eyes rimmed with power.

"Yes, I have hunted them, and so has my mother. After what they did to me and my family, what they did to my _children_, I made certain the trolls feared the onset of frost and snow." There was no pleasure in Saja's words, no gleeful undertone that told Elsa she'd enjoyed her hunting. There was only cool neutrality that the queen instantly recognized as the callused mask of a woman who'd reached her limit for feeling any type of emotion.

"They make you think they are mundane and harmless," Saja continued, unable to let the subject drop, "wise in the ways of the earth and its magic, but they are devious and cruel and underhanded. Have you not heard the tales of the changlings? How they will kidnap children from their parents, erase the child's memories, and raise them as their own?"

Elsa felt a chill creep into her spine that had nothing to do with her magic. Kristoff said he'd always been with the trolls. Ever since he was old enough to remember, he'd lived with Pabbie and Bulda, but was that how it had begun? Surely not; Kristoff was human, so he would have had to have a human mother and father. What had happened to them? Shaking her head to be rid of the disturbing implications of Saja's words, Elsa set her face to match the neutrality of the Frost Born.

"I am sorry for the pain you've suffered at the hands of the trolls, but I have never had bad dealings with them."

"That's because you have _me_ to thank for the fair treatment," Saja all but snarled.

"How so?"

"I started out as a normal child. Well, as normal as a child whose mother was the spirit of snow and frost."

"Snaer….is a goddess?" Elsa asked with an incredulous cock of her eyebrow.

"Goddess, spirits, elemental, they all mean the same thing to me. Snaer had relations with a human and in turn gave birth to me. She gave me up three days after I was born because, in the world she resided in, a half human child could not survive. She gave me to an Earl's wife who could not conceive, and who had prayed to the gods for years to have a child. That is how I came to be, but my mother would not leave a human couple to deal with a child born with powers they did not understand. You and I share the same beginning, it would seem. The only difference is that Snaer took it upon herself to teach me how to control my powers for my benefit and the benefit of my human family. If I could not be with her in her world, she would make certain I could survive in my own. I learned from her until my eighteenth year when I and my powers reached our flowering. After that, she disappeared back into her realm.

"It would be later that same year that my life would take an unexpected and life changing turn. I was kidnapped one night by men from a neighboring kingdom who knew a winter witch lived in the village. My adopted mother and father had done their best to shield me from prying eyes, but secrets always escape, no matter how tightly you hold them. It would have only taken the flick of my wrist to kill the men storming into my room one early winter morning, but one of them managed to straddle me and press something against my chest."

Saja pulled down the neck of her leather tunic and chainmail shirt to reveal the scar just below the hollow of her throat. Elsa studied it, brow creased in concentration. It looked like she'd been branded with a coin about half the size of her palm. Within the brand were the twisting and swirling lines of a knot, though she didn't recognize the design.

"It was Earl Elerend who had sent the men after me. My father thought it was just power play, and in truth it was, but it later came to my attention that Elerend had made a deal with the trolls near his hamlet. They would supply him with a charm that could cap my powers, and he would see to it that Snaer's human abomination would never tip the balance of power between the warring magics between my mother and the trolls."

"Elerend…the man you killed when Gunnar—" Elsa stopped talking and looked away, still unable to stomach the thought of what Saja had turned Gunnar into.

"Yes, that same man. I was to be Elerend's hostage to ensure that my adopted father cooperated with his demands, but he did not expect me to escape, nor did he anticipate I would take a good chunk of his men with me when I ran."

"So, the trolls supplied Elerend with the charm that capped your power. I can see why that would be irksome, but that hardly justifies—"

"Irksome? You think that having your power bottle up inside you would simply be _irksome_? I was without my power for nearly two years, at the mercy of men who saw me as nothing but a tradable good. Try holding your breath for that long or go without eating. As I recall, you couldn't go a full twelve hours when Pabbie capped your powers after removing the assassin's blade from your chest."

Elsa narrowed her eyes at Saja, a shiver running the length of her spine as her magic twisted under her skin. "How do you know about that?"

"Who do you think you were speaking to when your powers were capped?"

The queen took a reflexive step away from her ancestor, hands opening and closing by her side. Yes, she had heard a voice calling to her as she struggled to awaken in time to save Anna from the second assassin. "You…you were with me that day? But, how? I didn't call you."

This time, Saja gave her a lopsided smile that seemed to melt the years off the woman. "Dear one, I have been with you since the beginning, you just didn't know I was there."

"Alright," Elsa said slowly, her mind racing with a new batch of unanswered questions. "Alright, we can come back to that later. I can understand your dislike for the trolls, but not your utter hatred. I can see your point, but—"

"No, this is seeing my point." Saja reached out and touched Elsa on the forehead before she could back away again.

Immediately, the forest fell away and she was standing at the base of a snowy valley, blinking in the harsh brightness of freshly fallen snow. Twenty feet ahead of her, a thin line of perhaps a hundred warriors stood with their back to her, shields linked in a wobbly shield wall. Another ten or so men huddled behind them, surrounding someone who was seated on their knees. Confused and a little nauseous from the sudden time jump, Elsa began to turn around and jumped when a cold hand touched her arm.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked moving away from the Frost Born. "Is this another memory?"

"Yes, and I brought you here to show you what the medaling of trolls can do to someone of our kind. This is also a lesson in what happens when we deplete our magic. When Elerend's men capped my power they didn't know how much of a back build it would create, but the trolls did. They had anticipated it," Saja snarled. Before Elsa could retort, a piercing scream snapped her attention back towards the group of soldiers.

She watched as a younger Saja, perhaps a year or two older than Elsa was now, stood up from the cluster of warriors surrounding her and staggered to the front of the shield wall. The men reluctantly let her pass, and she began to climb the hill with lurching steps. Elsa caught a glimpse of movement further up the steep incline and squinted. At first it looked as if a rockslide was thundering down the hill towards the men, but after a moment she realized the rocks were actually clusters of horsemen, and she drew in a sharp breath.

"There were a thousand men charging us this day," Saja said by way of explanation when Elsa shot her a confused look. "Earl Elerend had discovered my escape and sent his warband to recapture me and kill the men who'd chosen to run with me."

"Saja, stop! You can't do this!"

Elsa watched a young man push past the press of warriors and attempt to grab Saja before she moved to far up the incline, but before he was able to break past the shield wall, a giant of a man with tree trunks for arms and long blond hair pulled him back.

"She knows what she's doing, Gunnar!" the blond haired man shouted.

"She's going to kill herself and us if we let her use her magic, Rag! We need to run. There's no fighting something that large!"

"Trust in the gods, brother. They sent us a winter witch, and we just set her free."

"How is that supposed to—" Gunnar would have said more but the conversation abruptly ended when an arrow thudded into the ground next to his boot. "Raise your shields!" he shouted as more arrows began to litter the snowy ground. A few unlucky men didn't raise them fast enough, blood spattering the ground as they lay dying.

The opposing warband was nearly at the bottom of the incline, spreading out into a thin line nearly a quarter of a mile across and moving at an impossibly fast pace towards Saja and her men. Elsa could see the men on horseback clearly now, some notching arrows into bows while others hefted spears, swords, and axes as they prepared to trample the tiny cluster of warriors. Three hundred yards away, the arrows began raining down around Saja's men like hissing black rain, thudding into shields with a dull hollow sound. Two hundred yards and the ground shook with the thunder of a thousand hooves and the roar of men who knew victory was certain. One hundred yards and it appeared Gunnar's suggestion of running wasn't entirely unfounded. Then Elsa felt her mouth fall open as the impossible happened.

"Mother, hear me," she heard younger Saja whisper, voice trembling with fear and pain. "Take what you must of me. My body is payment for the price I must pay; just let them live. Please…let _him _live."

Saja, who had moved a good thirty yards away from her men, suddenly threw out her arms as if ready to embrace the thundering death headed straight for her. The sky almost instantly darkened: thick, swirling gray clouds enveloped the sun and plunged the valley into an eerie twilight. The wind strengthened and blew in from the north, bringing with it the first fat flakes that heralded the blizzard about to break at the behest of the Frost Born. Steadily the temperature dropped until it reached an abominable degree. Elsa felt the buzzing under her skin return as Saja's magic snaked across the ground in glowing blue fractures of power. The lines raced away from her to the left and right, spikes of translucent ice springing out of the ground like jagged teeth. Even from a short distance, Elsa could feel the magnetic pull of the Frost Born's power, and it left her feeling nauseous as her own magic tried to rise to the surface and answer Saja's silent call to battle.

"Let earth and sky be one!" she heard Saja screamed into the heavens.

Suddenly, Elsa was standing close enough to the young Frost Born she could have reached out and touched her. This close, she could see the sweat running down her face in silvery beads and feel the skin blistering cold enveloping them in icy arms. This close and the Arendelle queen had to grind her teeth and clench her hands into knuckle white fists to keep her magic safely within her body. Saja raised her arms above her head, eyes rolling closed. A split second later the ground in front of her erupted with the concussive force of a cannon blast and rose into the sky, a monolith of frost and ice reaching for the swirling clouds with jagged, grasping fingers. The explosion of so much power unleashed at once bucked and rolled the earth, and Elsa stumbled back in petrified awe, hair whipped off her shoulders as the wall continued its dizzying ascent, ice and snow momentarily stinging her eyes. Higher and higher it climbed until the wall towered over her, Saja, and the warband by at least two hundred feet. Body tensed and quivering under the weight of her power, Saja's arms flew out to either side as if by some unseen force as the wall spread the length of the mile wide valley faster than water spilling from a bucket.

The frantic screams that arose from the opposing warband rose into a chaotic cacophony. Men bellowed and horses screamed. Their impact came seconds later and was so sharp and sudden it was sure to leave man sized blood spatters littered across the ice. Not surprisingly, the bodies of nearly a thousand men and horses did nothing to the wall. The ice, nearly five feet thick and strengthened by Saja's will, held firm. The Frost Born, however, felt the concussion hit her like a boulder slamming down a hill. Her head snapped back and her spine arched, a wordless, agonized scream contorting her face but no sound escaping her lips. She would have topped over with the force of the blow had her legs not been anchored to the ground by arms of ice.

Elsa watched in stunned silence as the Frost Born braced herself and pushed against the monumental force in front of her, back and shoulders bunching as her muscles corded under her thin tunic. A bright bloom of blood suddenly spattered the ground between her feet, quickly followed by three more. The queen realized with a start that the blood was coming from Saja's nose. This was not the only startling change in the Frost Born's body. The whites of her eyes were beginning to cloud pink as the veins burst under the pressure of holding her magic in place. Eventually the azure color of Saja's eyes went a familiar static white, her glowing irises floating in a pool of crimson red as the last of the blood vessels burst. Elsa felt a vacuum of power swirling around her as if she stood above a whirlpool. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine slender lines of blue and white fractals circling Saja as she emptied her magic into the wall. Those same finger-like fractals tugged at her own magic, searching for a power source but finding none. With sick curiosity that couldn't be turned away from, Elsa watched the tips of young Saja's fingers began to blister red before turning black. The creeping sickness slowly began traveling up each finger and spreading across her hands, the skin splitting and bleeding before withering as if put to a flame.

As the blackness reached the middle of her forearm, a loud cracking sound split the air like a clap of thunder. A crack appeared at the base of the wall, black fractures snaking along the ground in either direction. The sound grew louder until Elsa had to clap her hands over her ears to protect her hearing and jumped away from the wall as it began to shift. Saja let out a tortured scream and gave the wall one last push. Remarkably, the monolith pitched forward and toppled to the ground like a falling deck of cards, the center of the wall first collapsing and pulling the rest down with it. The power of its landing threw clouds of snow and ice into the air and shook the ground so violently new crags and fissures appeared in the earth. The men and horses on the other side of the wall were dead. There was no doubt. No bodies needed to be recovered, no rescue effort made. Here and there a spattering of blood could be seen or a bent and broken body part protruded from the jagged clusters of ice, a solid indication that the dead were very much dead.

Elsa hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath until her lungs began to burn. Exhaling in a rush, she watched helplessly as young Saja sank to her knees before pitching to the side, body convulsing with such violent seizures the queen feared her back would break.

"I don't remember much after that," Saja said quietly.

"Your arms—"

"Were gone by that point. The blackness would eventually climb to my elbow, but there was no saving the skin or bone. My arms were useless and had to be amputated after the sickness stopped spreading," she said and lifted her own arm as if to show the queen what she meant.

"You used will-ice to create new arms for yourself," Elsa whispered in sudden awe. It had never crossed her mind that her ice could be used to heal, let alone create limbs. Did that mean others could be healed by her ice? Was that even possible?

"It took some time for me to figure out how to form my ice into something that both resembled and worked like a real arm, but yes, eventually I was able to function like a normal human again."

The two stepped back as Gunnar slid to a stop next to Saja and attempted to lay her on the flat of her back as her convulsions worsened and she arched off the ground, pink foam bubbling out of the corners of her mouth.

"Why is your body doing that?" Elsa asked averting her eyes from the drama unfolding before her. It somehow felt like she was spying on a private moment despite the fact that Saja had meant to show her exactly this.

"I don't know why I was seizing like that. Not even the shamans and physicians who saw me afterword could explain my bout of fits. All I remember is feeling cold for the first time right before my muscles began to seize. As for my arms? This is what happens when we use up our magic. When we use all our fractures, our body cannibalizes itself in order to survive. It attacks the bone and muscle first then eats the skin."

Elsa raised her own hands and looked at the faint scars on her palm. "My magic did something similar to me when I was eighteen. I'd just learned about my parent's death and ran to my room before I revealed my magic to Anna. Once I got there, I collapsed. I don't remember much, but when my power finally tore free from my body I felt cold for the first time. When I woke up my hands were a bloody mess, and I had burns all across my body."

"What you felt was the release of a power back build, but you already knew that. You were not close to depleting your magic, but our power reacts to strong emotion as well as to our surroundings. This is why we cannot bottle or cage it. I suspect that you internalized the pain from the loss of your parents, and, in turn, your power turned on you because you were keeping it smothered. This is why you nearly destroyed your entire kingdom in just a few days after your coronation. Holding in your power was like holding your breath. It just became too much to bear any longer."

Elsa instinctively wrapped her arms around her stomach and shivered, Saja's words sticking in her like a knife. Yes, that had been exactly what happened. The stress of her coronation, coupled with being around large groups of people and Anna's outbursts and "wedding announcement", had provided a perfect trifecta of raw emotion and panic. One thing led to another and before she could stop herself, Elsa had revealed her secret to her subjects and fled her kingdom, unaware her power was spreading throughout Arendelle and the hamlets beyond like a cancer.

"Our magic is a wild thing that reacts poorly to being confined. It's not sentient like your snowmen, but, like a flame, it needs to breathe and burn. Which is why having your power capped with troll magic is the worst kind of torture. With no way of releasing the back build, your body slowly starts to deteriorate. For two years, I suffered debilitating fevers and hallucinations while my body fought to be rid of the charm imbedded in my skin. Towards the end of my two year captivity, I stopped eating. I couldn't stomach any type of food, which is why I look so sickly," Saja said motioned to the vision of her younger self lying prone on the ground next to them.

Elsa hadn't noticed it at first, her attention having been solely on the mile long, two hundred foot ice wall, but now that Saja had said something, she saw exactly what she'd been talking about. Younger Saja was very nearly flesh and bone, the angles of her body too sharp, her skin pale and ashy. Dark circles sagged under her sunken in eyes and the planes of her face looked eerily skeletal. When Gunnar finally scooped her into his arms after the last fit threw her into unconsciousness, Elsa caught a glimpse of the girl's ribs when her shirt rode up and found she could easily count them.

"It's a miracle you survived this," Elsa said quietly.

"On rare occasions, the gods are kind to me," Saja said squinting up at the churning turmoil of gray clouds above. The wind had picked up considerably, blowing around fat, wet snowflakes and turning them in to little dervishes.

"How did you recall your fractures," Elsa asked as she watched the warband slowly start to pick their way down the valley.

"An excellent question. I wasn't able to recall them until after I awoke, which was three days later. That's why the blackness was only able to reach my elbows. Had I awoken sooner, I could have stopped my body from further cannibalizing itself. Had I remained unconscious, the blackness would have continued to climb into my upper arms and spread across my body."

Elsa had expected Saja's explanation of how her arms had turned to ice would be disturbing, but imagining a black sickness creeping up her arms, eating her flesh, bone, and blood, made her nauseous. "I sorry this happened to you."

Saja shrugged as if it didn't matter, but the queen could see past the Frost Born's nonchalance. The memories of the past still bothered her, and with good reason.

"As I said before, I was young and foolish. I should have never had Gunnar remove the charm from me during the heat of battle, but it was fated to happen. The trolls and their magic tried their best that day to be rid of me, but apparently, I'm more resilient than they believed."

"You still think the trolls are to blame for this?" Elsa frowned canting her head to one side.

"None of this would have happened had they not put that charm on me," Saja replied icily.

"But, it was Elerend who commissioned the trolls to make the charm. He ultimately used it, not them."

"It wasn't like they made a charm that could fit anyone, Elsa. The trolls created that piece of metal with the sole purpose of capping my power and killing me in perhaps the most painful way possible. They are as much to blame as Elerend himself."

"I'm sorry. I know this is hard for you, and you have good reason to distrust them, but I just can't grasp your hatred for the trolls. To you they are malicious, but to me they are…well…family."

"Perhaps you should rethink who you associate your family with," Saja growled. "Mixing your family with the trolls will only end in disaster. It's already resulted in the stunted growth of our bloodline."

"How do you figure that?" Elsa gaped.

"Where do you think the poultice from the legend you told me came from? The herb mixture that makes certain no children of the Frosberg line are born Frost Born?"

Elsa felt her mouth go uncomfortably dry as she sought to reply. The legend said it was Snare who gave Saja the poultice in order to make her fertile...but was the right? Saja smiled at the confusion on her descendant's face and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yes, Elsa, the legend you know is a fanciful lie. The trolls made sure my bloodline would end with my last remaining child. The fear of our power was so great, and the priests of the White Christ advancing into our land so powerful, my son went to Snaer and begged her for a way to stop the continuance of his bloodline. Naturally, my mother refused her grandson's request, so he went to the only other magical beings that would listen to him."

"The trolls," Elsa whispered.

"Yes, and is it any surprise that they were all too happy to provide him with an herbal remedy that would snuff the magic in an unborn child? My son's fear drove him to do the unthinkable, and the trolls obliged him."

"That— that actually makes a lot of sense, but surely not all trolls feel the same way about us. You said it yourself that it was because of you the trolls treated our family fairly."

Saja looked away, and Elsa saw a flicker of some unknown emotion flash across the Frost Born's face. Was that guilt or uncertainty creasing her brow, or was she struggling to keep her temper in check? Regardless, the queen didn't know what to make of her ancestor's explanation about her hatred for trolls. Maybe it was because Elsa and her family had developed a deep love for the trolls in their kingdom. Maybe it was because Pabbie had saved her and her sister's life and never once showed them an ounce of malice or asked for anything in return. Whatever it was, the queen understood that Saja had been wronged by the trolls of her era but that didn't make all trolls bad. But getting that through to the Frost Born was like trying to teach Sven how to dance.

Saja stared at her descendant for a long time as if trying to puzzle something out. Eventually, she let out a defeated sigh. "I can see there will always be a difference of opinion between you and me."

"Apparently so," Elsa confirmed with a slow nod.

"Fine. I will not press the issue with you, but I will not have you call me with troll magic again. That crystal must not touch your skin again."

"Anna wears a crystal, as well as Kristoff. What's different about me wearing one?"

"It only perpetuates the struggle between the magic of the earth and the magic of the elements, and I do not want to take a risk. This is not a discussion. You _will_ take the crystal off. Give it to your lover or back to the current troll chief. Just get it away from you."

Elsa would have said more, wanted to say more, wanted to remind Saja that she was queen and took orders from no one, but the instant her lips moved to form words a familiar blackness swallowed her and she fell back into the waking world in a rush of color and sound. She awoke with a start and sat up in bed, blinking in the faint pre-dawn light peeking through the gaps in her curtains. Scooting into a sitting position, Elsa rubbed the heels of her palms into her eyes and groaned quietly.

"You alright?"

The queen started and looked over at Revel. She returned his sleepy smile with a wan one of her own, raking her fingers through her mussed hair. "I'd like to be able to get a full night's sleep once in a while."

"Bad dreams again?" he asked jacking himself up on his elbow.

Elsa shook her head and lay back down, pulling the covers around her and staring at the ceiling. "No, just Saja again."

Alert now, Revel gently turned her so that he could see the mark on her shoulder. He was relieved to see that the handprint was only slightly flushed with color and not the acrid black it had been the night he'd learned about his lover's ancestral visits.

"Did she hurt you?" he asked, pressing his warm palm against her cool cheek. Elsa closed her eyes and leaned into his calloused yet surprisingly comfortable hand with a contented sigh.

"No, she didn't. It…this was more of a lesson than anything else." Suddenly remembering the Frost Born's final words, the queen reached for the crystal hanging around her neck and pulled it over her head. Seated in the palm of her hand, Elsa could feel a faint hum emitting from the gem and looked at it curiously. Within the natural facets she could see tiny arks of white and blue energy jumping from one side to the other as if the crystal contained bottled lightning. A little nervous now, she dropped the gem and rubbed her thumb against the underside of her fingers as if trying to remove a sticky residue.

"Something wrong?" Revel asked looking between her and the gem.

"It was something Saja said," Elsa explained. "She told me not to wear anything the trolls gave me because it perpetuated the battle between earth and elemental magics, but I'm not sure I can trust her judgment when it comes to the trolls."

"I take it she's not a fan," Revel said with a small grin. One of the things he'd come to discover about the queen and her family was that they were tied to a clan of trolls who resided at the base of North Mountain. Apparently, Kristoff was their adopted son, thus linking the two families through marriage. It hadn't been hard to believe Elsa's tales about the rock people, evidently he'd even seen one the night Elsa had been attacked by the assassin. The boulder Kristoff had lugged into the castle courtyard had been the troll chief and his adopted father, but it had taken Revel a few days to fully come to grips with the fact that mythical creatures actually did exist and lived a little less than ten miles away.

Elsa blew out a slow breath. "You could say that again. She told me to give the gem to you, but I'm a little worried now. I've never distrusted the trolls before, but Saja was adamant that I could not wear it. I can't, in good conscience, give it to anyone without knowing what's wrong with the stone."

"Maybe she's wrong about it. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the jewel and she's just a little jumpy around troll magic. You said she got angry when she found out you called her with troll magic the last time."

"Angry doesn't even begin to describe what she was that night," Elsa said, unconsciously touching the brand on her shoulder.

"Well, in any case, I'll wear the crystal so you don't wind up angering your ancestor," Revel chuckled as he slipped the jewel over his head.

"I don't think it's a good idea."

"We'll just have to wait and see then."

The queen opened her mouth to say something when a thought suddenly occurred to her and she twisted around to look at the clock on her dresser. "It's almost sunrise."

The Captain stretched like a cat and groaned, arms above his head and spine curved. He held the stretch for a few moments before sitting up and lightly kissing the queen on the cheek. "Trying to be rid of me that quickly?"

"Of course," Elsa smiled broadly and brushed his jaw with her fingertips. "Our tryst must not be made known to the rest of the castle; though it pains me to see you leave."

"Oh no, we can't have that," he murmured as he slid close to her and began nuzzling into her neck, hands slipping under the sheets and sliding up her thigh. Elsa sighed happily and closed her eyes, rolling onto her back as Revel continued to nuzzle and kiss the smooth skin of her shoulder and chest. When his hand past her hip and brushed her stomach she jerked and laughed. When that same hand cupped her left breast and gave her nipple a light pinch she gasped and arched, tingling heat flooding her body from the neck down and making a warm nest in her abdomen.

"But, you're right," Revel said suddenly pulling away with a wide smile and slid off the end of the bed. "I should be getting back to the guard tower before someone notices."

Elsa struggled to sit up and glared at him. Lips pursed, she released a short exhale through her nose. "You're a bastard."

"That, my dear, is untrue. An ass, I am, but a bastard I am not," he said, flashing her another wide grin and ducked as a pillow came flying at him. "Now, Majesty, one mustn't get so testy when teased. It spoils the fun."

"Oh, does it? Fun for the one teasing, but not the one being teased," she said throwing back the covers and lunging at him. Because of the height of her bed, she was able to tackle the Captain around the chest, but she didn't have the mass or force to pull him to the floor. Instead, Revel caught her around the waist and spun her until her feet alighted on the ground.

"That was a good try," he said kissing her on the forehead.

"Someday I'll be able to pull you to the ground," she said and squeezed him tightly.

"You've already brought me to my knees, why do you insist on getting me on the floor?" he mumbled into the fragrant locks of her hair.

"Because on the floor, height and weight don't matter," Elsa replied and cupped his naked groin with an icy hand. Revel jumped and hissed, squeezing his lover tighter as her hand gripped the base of his warm shaft. Then, just as suddenly, she let go and bounced back onto her bed with a mischievous grin.

"Not too fun now, is it?" she asked sweetly.

"I refuse to answer," Revel replied, snatching his pants from the floor and climbing into them, grunting as he attempted to adjust himself so that walking while semi erect wasn't so awkward. Elsa held out his shirt for him, her smile still deceptively sweet. After pulling on his shirt and lacing his boots, Revel stepped in front of the queen and kissed her three times as had become their custom: once on the forehead, once on the nose, and once on the lips.

"Have a good Tuesday," he said after their lips had parted.

Elsa groaned quietly and rested her forehead against his muscular stomach. "I hate Tuesdays."

"I know you do," he said gently pinching her chin and lifting her head, "but maybe this one won't be so terrible?"

"Perhaps," she conceded with a sigh. "Miracles are known to happen."

Revel kissed her one more time before moving back over to the bookcase and pressing the hidden trigger in the wall. There was a faint pop as the door swung open on silent hinges revealing the dark passage beyond. Before he stepped past the threshold, he leaned around the bookcase and gave his lover one last smile. "I'll be seeing you later."

"You too, I…wait, what? We don't have a meeting today."

Revel gave her an innocent shrug and ducked into the passage. The door swung shut before Elsa could reach it and she sighed exasperatedly. As far as she could recall, the meetings taking up a good portion of her day were all with Kai and the castle staff responsible for setting up the banquet and accompanying ball at the end of the Summit and a few merchants requesting permission to set up temporary stalls.

_What are you up to?_

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><p>"Anna, I don't understand why we need to do this now," Elsa said with a sigh as they walked across the stone bridge connecting Arendelle castle to the rest of the town.<p>

Barely a week and a half separated the royal family from the chaos that was the Trade Summit, and already the town was in full preparation. Inns were being repaired, roofs being re-thatched and shingled, shudders being reattached, rugs being beaten, linens washed and hung to dry in the warm westerly breeze and everything within eyeshot of the harbor was getting a fresh coat of paint. And that went without mention of the enormous amounts of tradable goods arriving everyday on the wharf and through the Arendelle land gate; hundreds of crates, boxes, and carts arriving daily, clogging up the thoroughfares and making travel within the town increasingly difficult. All the activity began at sunrise and didn't cease until well after sundown, so venturing into town right at this moment wasn't at all well planned, but Anna had insisted she needed to look at fabric from the nursery and wouldn't take no for an answer. Even Kristoff was unable to sway his wife's decision for a spring morning venture. Elsa, on the other hand, had a wary suspicion as to why her sister insisted on going into town.

"This is the best time to select fabric. You know we always get a large shipment of exotic wears right before the Summit, and I wanted to find something special for the baby."

"Yes, but why now? Why today? This place is a madhouse, and it's not going to get any better with us walking around."

Anna turned towards her sister and gave her the best serious look she could conjure, which, coming from Anna, was just pouty and defiant. "I'm looking for something special, and I intend to find it today."

Elsa rolled her eyes and looked over at Kristoff who merely shrugged and wrapped an arm around his wife. "Just be glad we don't have a three guard escort?" he volunteered with a half-smile, and the queen suddenly realized he was in on whatever Anna had planned.

"What are the two of you plotting?" Elsa whispered stepping closer to her sister and brother-in-law. Before either could answer, someone cleared their throat and the queen turned in surprise to see Revel standing behind her dressed in his captain's uniform. He bowed deeply to the royal family, a motion that was both precise and elegant.

"Good afternoon, Majesties. I am here as your escort into town."

Elsa turned slowly away from Revel and glared at her sister, specks of frost climbing up her fingers. Anna, ignoring the sudden dip in temperature, gave the Captain a friendly smile.

"Thank you, Captain. We'll be along shortly." Then, turning back to her sister with the sweetest smile she could muster, she added, "Oh Elsa, when have I ever plotted against you? Really, you shouldn't be so paranoid. It's bad for your health."

Elsa scowled. "Stop it, the both of you. This isn't the time for games. I have too much on my plate as is; I can't be tugged around by my sleeves expecting to play catch-up with whatever you two have in mind. I need to get back to work, Anna."

The princess stepped up and took the queen's hands in hers. "See, this is exactly why I planned this outing. You're too stressed for your own good. You need a chance to walk around and get some air, and to be with Revel aside from your nightly ventures."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elsa retorted as she glanced over Anna's shoulder at Kristoff. The mountain man only shrugged and gave her a knowing smile that woke a line of red across her face.

_He knows,_ she thought with a thrill of fear that put her heart into her throat. _Who else knows?_

Anna saw the look on her sister's face and sighed. "Yes, Kristoff knows."

"Why did you tell him?" Elsa hissed leaning close to Anna.

"Because he's my husband, and I can't keep a secret from him. Elsa, do you really think he's going to say something, or that I am?"

"You already did! Anna, I trusted you to—"

"No, we're not going to talk about trust right now. Kristoff is _my_ husband, and you know I trust him with my life. So, naturally, I'd trust him with this secret between you and I. Relax, please, and enjoy the day." Anna squeezed her sister's cold hands and gave her a bright smile. "I just want you to be happy, and Revel makes you happy. So go and be happy with him today."

The queen hung her head and drew in a deep breath meant to combat the nauseous roll of her stomach. So, two people now knew about her secret. Wonderful. Granted, it was her sister and her brother-in-law, but two was enough even if she trusted Kristoff as much as Anna did. Him knowing changed things, and Elsa realized she'd have to be doubly careful in the future. Unable to relax completely, she took a step back and glanced over her shoulder. Revel was still a little ways away, but when he caught her glance at him, he tipped his head in a courteous nod while a sly smile crooked the corner of his lips.

_What have I walked into?_

"Anna," Elsa breathed turning her attention back to the princess, but she wasn't there. While her attention had been on Revel, Kristoff and Anna had slipped away leaving Elsa alone with the Captain.

_Oh, sometimes I really do hate you, little sister. I really _really_ do._

"Shall we keep walking, Majesty?" Revel asked in a soft voice as he came to stand next to her, smile still in place and hands clasped behind his back.

"You all planned this from the start," Elsa whispered as the two of them began strolling through the town, queen and Captain walking together in near perfect stride. A few villagers and townspeople stopped their work to bow to the queen, but most simply nodded respectfully and continued with what they were doing. Elsa didn't mind and nodded back to them as she passed by.

"I had no part in the princess's plans. I just agreed to escort the three of you into town when she approached me about it yesterday."

"That smile on your face says otherwise," Elsa mumbled.

"Perhaps it _is_ nice to be able to walk with you in the daylight without fear of someone discovering us," Revel said quietly under his breath.

Elsa sighed and folded her hands in front of her, a silent admission that he was right. Though it irked her Anna had been able to pull the wool over her eyes, she really was grateful for the chance to get out of the castle and spend time with Revel in a way that seemed completely legitimate. The queen _would_ need to walk the town and inspect how the repairs were progressing, and her guard Captain would most certainly want to walk with her so they could discuss guard placement and street barricades that would prevent visitors from getting lost as well as deter those special few looking for trouble while visiting.

"You don't look like you've been sleeping deeply, Majesty," Revel said quietly enough so that only she could hear him as he fought to keep his grin hidden.

"You would know," Elsa countered.

"Would I now? Aside from your nightly sessions with your ancestor, what else is keeping you awake?"

"It's a wonder I sleep at all between Saja and all the kicking you do," Elsa said trying to hide her smile. Pointless, playful banter was always best when enjoyed with someone who would participate in it with you, and she would not give Revel the satisfaction of a playmate. The two past a fabric shop, and Elsa caught a glimpse of strawberry blond hair duck out of sight just a moment too late, and made a face.

_Anna, I swear to God, I'm going to get you back for this if you're following and listening in._

Revel leaned close and pointed to something obscure to make it look as if he were pointing something out to the queen. "I do not kick in my sleep."

"How would you know? You're asleep, and I'm the one jolted away with a foot in the thigh. I have the bruise to prove it, if you don't believe me."

"Fine, then if I kick in my sleep it's to keep you from snoring."

This time Elsa twisted around to look at him and narrowed her eyes. "I do not snore."

"Like a bear with a head cold," Revel grinned and extended his arm as if allowing her to proceed in front of him.

"You're exaggerating," Elsa whispered as they passed the shop and kept walking.

"Perhaps a little," he grinned.

The two made their way towards the wharf at a leisurely pace, stopping in front of shops to inspect the repairs or allow Elsa to eye some of the products and wears. Queen or not, she enjoyed the occasional shipping trip in town with Anna and the chance to feel like a normal woman rather than royalty. More than once, however, she caught Revel eyeing certain things she had found interesting a little too closely and wondered what he was planning.

"I'm glad to see that the repairs to the store house are coming along at a good pace," Elsa mused as they passed the construction. Most of the framework had been raised and a sturdy roof capped the structure. The only thing missing were the walls which the carpenters and day laborers were currently constructing. In another few days the store house would reopen and be stocked for the Summit.

"The carpenter's guild has done a marvelous job restoring the structure in such a short amount of time. If they could, I'm certain they would work on it through the night in order to get it done before schedule. Having one less store house has put a strain on the residents of the wharf as well as the other store houses."

"Believe me, I've heard nothing but complaints about the lack of a proper store house and how difficult it's been this winter," Elsa replied with a deep sigh, craning her neck in order to see the workers climbing atop the roof with safety lines cinched around their waists.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Revel said and made a face. "People need someone to blame, even for accidents, but that doesn't make it right or fair."

"One of the less than glamorous aspects of being queen," Elsa replied with a shrug.

"Have you, by chance, heard any news of how the young girl who was injured in the fire has been doing?"

Elsa slowly turned away from the construction of the store house and began walking away. "I have," she admitted after a short silence.

"Is the prognosis…bad?"

"I paid a visit to the family a few weeks ago. Sonja is doing better, though adjusting to life without having a left hand has been….difficult for her. Most of the burns have healed, thank God, but the scaring she now bares is horrible. She'll be disfigured for the rest of her life."

"I'm sorry for her and her family," Revel said lowering his eyes. It was a sad fact that someone, especially a woman, who suffered a disfiguring accident wouldn't have much of a life away from their immediate family. Depending on how her father took to her scars, Sonja could likely live out the rest of her days hidden away from a public who would view her as a freak or a monster because of shallow, preconceived views of beauty. It also meant that the prospect of her or her father finding her a husband was bleak.

Elsa seemed to read Revel's mind and frowned so deeply her brow wrinkled. "I know how difficult it will be for her once she begins flowering into a young woman. Regardless of what we are taught by the Church or our own moral values, there is a high price put on beauty. Those without it are usually shunned from society."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"As a matter of fact, there is. I've spoken to Sonja's father at length about her future, and he and I have come to an agreement. The two of them will joint my castle staff once Sonja has completely healed. Her father is a capable gardener, and I am in need of a few more hands in the royal gardens now that I know there will be another mouth to feed once Anna gives birth. Gerda will take Sonja under her wing and teach her how to become a lady in waiting." Elsa wrung her hands together and pursed her lips. "I…I know it's not the ideal life for a young girl, but she and her father will be gainfully employed, and Sonja will learn a valuable skill while also being protected from the prejudices of life beyond the castle."

"I think it's a good idea, but, Majesty, why do you have such a strong need to protect this girl?"

"Sonja was the first child I showed my magic to after the Great Freeze. I made her a bear ornament and she…she began to cry and hugged me. After everything I'd done to the kingdom, after running away from my duties because I feared no one would accept me for who I was, a small, innocent child showed me that I wasn't the monster I was convinced I'd become. I feel I need to repay the love she showed me anyway I can."

Revel had to fight the urge to take Elsa in his arms and squeeze her tight. Instead, he made it seem as if he'd stumbled and gently bumped her shoulder with his. She glanced at him with a questioning look but returned his affectionate smile.

"You know, one of these days, you are going to make a wonderful mother," he whispered.

"One of these days, I hope I can be," Elsa replied with a sad smile. The likelihood of her finding a man she could marry was slim; especially when she already had someone she loved enough to even consider the possibility of starting a family with. Regardless, the chasm of station stretching between her and Revel was too great, and bridging the divide would prove to be difficult and messy.

_But there has to be something I can do. There _has_ to be something in the law books, a loop hole perhaps. Once the Trade Summit is over, I'll begin looking into the laws more in depth._

As the two continued to walk the wharf, the secret lovers were completely unaware they were being closely watched by an unwelcome, unfriendly set of eyes. Slowly, a tall, handsome man emerged from the doorway of a shop and watched the couple until they turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Only then did he return to his small schooner and called for the captain.

"Ready to set sail, m'lord?"

"Yes," the man replied still looking into the direction the queen and Captain had gone.

"Something interesting on the wharf?" the schooner captain asked conversationally as he raised the anchor and pushed off the dock. The small boat rocked gently as the waves lapped the hull, the wind catching the furrowed sail almost immediately.

"You could say that. I've just found someone I've been searching years for."

"Ah, well a happy day then!"

The handsome man turned to the captain and gave him a smile that sent a shiver down the schooner captain's spine. Watching his guest smile like that reminded him of a shark, and he couldn't help to catch the malicious glint in his eyes. Truly, this man was a being meant to do harm.

"Yes," the handsome man nodded and turned his hazel eyes back to the wharf, shark-tooth grin still in place. "Yes it is."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Ok everyone, I apologize profusely for the late chapter update. I've been having trouble with getting the edits done for this chapter and finally decided to post it with only my edits. So I apologize if there are more mistakes in this one than usual. Once I get the final edited piece I'll clean up the chapter and re-post it, but I wanted to get this piece out for you all to read because, honestly, it's burning a hole in my head. As always, I look forward to hearing what you all think. Feel free to review away and come visit me on tumblr!

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><p>"Majesty?" Gerda knocked gently on the door and waited a beat before calling out again. "Majesty, the royal seamstress has arrived for your dress fitting."<p>

Elsa sat up with a gasp, arms and legs flailing as she attempted to throw off her covers and crawl out of bed. "Yes, Gerda! I'm…" she glanced back at a slowly waking Revel and grimaced, "I'm awake. Give me a moment." She heard Gerda mumble something inaudible behind the door, most likely speaking to the seamstress.

"_Revel! Revel, wake up. We overslept!_" Elsa whispered harshly as she shook her lover awake. He blinked and groaned in the sunlight but reluctantly sat up with Elsa's help as she pulled at his arms. "You have to leave. _Now._"

"Majesty, is everything alright?" Gerda asked again sounding curious and slightly peevish about having to wait in the hall. Elsa swore under her breath and raked her fingers through her hair. She didn't know if the service matron knew about the secret passage in her room and would hear the door swinging open when the hidden switch was pressed.

"Calm down, let me just find my—" still groggy and uncoordinated, Revel put his right foot down on the cold floor and lost his balance, toppling over with a thunderous crash. "Marry mother of Christ," he hissed rolling onto his back and rubbing the tender place where his head had connected with the hardwood.

"Queen Elsa?" Gerda knocked again, this time sounding concerned. "Is everything alright?

_No, no, no, this was exactly what I've been afraid of. They're going to find out. They're going to hear him. I can't keep stalling— I can't—_

"Yes I'm…I'm just having trouble finding a robe. One second!" Then, helping a now awake but still naked Revel stand, she whispered, "We don't have any time! Get in my closet and shut the door." Elsa shoved him forward before he could protest. The seamstress wouldn't need to go anywhere near her closet, so it was the safest place to stash her lover.

"Wait— no I can't… ow stop shoving so hard—"

"Shh, they're going to hear you!" the queen snapped and managed to get Revel over the threshold. Snagging a robe from off the back of the door, she offered an apologetic wince before closing him in. Elsa staggered to her room door with as much grace as she could muster, composed herself with a few short breathes, and wrenched it open.

"I apologize," she said with a gust exhale and a wan smile. "I overslept. Please, come in. Ingrid, it's nice to see you again," Elsa acknowledge with a slight nod, her heart still hamming in her throat.

Gerda and the seamstress curtsied simultaneously and stepped into the royal chambers. Elsa shut the door behind them and shot a nervous glance at her closet and the living secret she had hidden there.

_This is doing nothing for my nerves._

Immediately, Ingrid set the low wooden stool she'd brought down in a particularly bright stream of sunlight and placed the unfinished gowns draped over her arm on Elsa's bed for the queen's inspection.

"Four dresses as you instructed, Majesty. Please take a look at them and see if they meet your exact specifications. If they do, I will start the fitting."

Elsa almost rolled her eyes but managed to keep enough of her regal mask in place to pull off an air of indifference. Ingrid was a sorceress when it came to crafting gowns and suits for the royal family. She'd been employed as the royal seamstress since after Anna's birth and had continued the tradition of making almost everything the family wore. She knew Elsa's preference and style better than anyone, so the queen wasn't worried in the least that the dresses Ingrid had created for her for the start of the Trade Summit tomorrow were exactly as she'd ordered. Still, it was a traditional dance she and the seamstress participated in every time she came for a fitting, so Elsa went through the motions of examining each dress for flaws she knew wouldn't be there.

"Excellent as usual, Ingrid. You are a miracle worker with thread and needle."

Ingrid made a dry scoffing sound in her throat and batted at the air. "The only miracle here is that I've lived this long and still have the use of my hands."

Indeed, the seamstress was well into her seventies. Her stooped back and wobbly legs required her to walk with a cane, but her spindly, knobby fingers still had the dexterity of a woman more than half her age. She watched the queen inspect the gowns with sharp hazel eyes, her thin gray hair tied back in a loose bun behind her head.

"They are exactly how I wanted them," Elsa smiled, rubbing the soft cotton fabric of a stunning navy and sky blue dress between her thumb and forefinger. She could already envision where her ice would go, further accenting the gown with glittering gems of translucent blue and white.

Ingrid grunted and nodded, setting down the large wooden box she'd been holding and gently opening the lid. The box opened like an ornate flower, panels and drawers sliding out in every direction revealing the tools of her trade kept in rigorous order. She withdrew a cloth tape measure and instructed Elsa to disrobe and pull on one of the gowns for her proper fitting. The queen obliged and stepped behind a thin screen provided by Gerda and slipped on the first dress: a burgundy, half-shoulder gown that would open her right side while completely covering the brand on her left.

"Would you like me to bring you some tea and pastries, Majesty?" Gerda asked from a respectful distance. Elsa swallowed nervously when she saw how close the service matron was to her closet door and suddenly changed her mind about not being hungry.

"Yes, thank you, Gerda."

"Why, Majesty, if my old eyes are seeing things correctly, you've acquired a new glow since last I saw you," Ingrid said once Gerda had left the room. Elsa stiffened and slowly looked down at the old woman.

"I'm certain I don't know what— ouch!" she jerked away from the needle that had pricked her hip, ice crusting her fingertips.

"Careful, Highness. Needles are sharp, and I have a lot at my disposal. It is unwise to lie to an old woman," Ingrid lightly chided, cracking a smile.

Elsa blew out a breath and looked out the window, schooling her face into as much as a blank mask as she could. "And what kind of glow do you see in me?"

"The glow of a woman who's finally surrendered to the pull of love," the seamstress replied as she continued to measure and pin the dress in such a way it hugged Elsa's curves without being overly tight and constructing.

With any other servant, the queen would not have tolerated such wild accusations, but Ingrid was the closest thing to a grandmother she and Anna had ever had. Being the royal seamstress, she'd been in and out of their lives almost weekly and wasn't afraid of speaking her mind or speaking casually with the royal sisters. It was strange yet refreshing having someone so willing to step across the threshold of proper etiquette, but it was also an endearing quality that the queen appreciated. Sometimes it was nice to be treated like a normal, twenty five year old woman rather than a ruling monarch.

Elsa didn't need to affirm anything. Her silence was answer enough for the old seamstress. "So, you've found a man to court you, or at the very least sate the desire that burns in us all."

This time, Elsa anticipated the prick of the needle when she jerked around to stare wide eyed at the old woman. "Ingrid!" she admonished, face flushing a brilliant shade of red.

"What?" Ingrid chuckled, sitting back on her heels and pinning a few more inches of fabric around Elsa's waist. "You think men are the only ones who desire a loving touch. We women can rival them in our cravings, and," the old woman whispered, leaning forward so that she peered up at the queen from around her right hip, "we can rival them in our lovemaking. They think that just because they have the snake it somehow means they have the skill. If only they knew how delusional they were."

"You're horrible," Elsa murmured, trying to hide her creeping smile. "If Gerda heard you talking like this, I think you'd give her a heart attack."

"I love Gerda to death," Ingrid exhaled, "but she is the most prudish woman I've never met. It's bad enough when I have to fit your sister's husband while she's present. Never seen a woman blush so deeply at the sight of a pantsless man. Granted, young Kristoff is not lacking in male prowess. It's no wonder your sister became pregnant so fast, and that he doesn't split her in half like a piece of lumber! I have to sew in at least six inches of extra fabric in his breeches just to fit his—"

"Thank you, Ingrid. I don't need to know anything further," Elsa said in a frantic rush. The last thing she wanted on her mind was the knowledge of how well-endowed Kristoff was. It was something she could go her whole life without knowing.

Ingrid shrugged nonchalantly and continued pinning. "Anyway, I notice you're not denying anything I've said thus far. So there _is_ a man who's snagged your heart. Good for you, lovely. So, when will we be hearing wedding bells?"

Elsa looked startled and shot a glance over at her closet. Revel was hearing all of this, damnit. "I…I really don't think—"

"Ah, so it's not something as easy as marriage that can bring the two of your together. I see. Well, you are within your right to be with whomever you want, Elsa. You are the queen."

"I wish it were that simple," Elsa whispered before she could stop herself.

"My dear sweet child, it is that simple," Ingrid said standing with a groan and stretching her sore back. "If you truly love him, royal preamble and tradition be damned. Marry his handsome ass before he gets away!"

Elsa felt another searing flush coming on and pressed her teeth into her bottom lip. Why on earth was she even having this conversation with her seamstress? Wasn't she always the one reminding Anna and Kristoff that the walls had ears?

"What makes you think he's handsome?" she asked quietly, lowering her voice so that only the two could hear.

"Well, you're definition of handsome and my definition of handsome will be two different things, but I can't imagine you giving your heart to someone with average looks. Unless he's gifted in other areas." The seamstress gave the queen a wink, and Elsa had never felt her face remain so red for so long.

"He is…handsome in his own right," Elsa said slowly. "And charming in an infuriating sort of way."

"Men think themselves capable of such wit and charm when in a woman's presence, but really they're just floundering fools grasping at straws. But, if this man has been able to steal your heart, there must be some good in him. It's refreshing to hear that you've finally reached a point in your life where you feel comfortable enough being with someone. I'm happy for you, Elsa."

The queen went quiet, and that seemed to suit the seamstress just fine. After a handful of silent minutes, Ingrid declared herself finished with the first dress and had Elsa change into the emerald green and blue one next. Gerda returned half way through this fitting and the three women began discussing mundane things like where the servants would need to take the guests that had already arrived and how they would conduct dinner that evening. A few Dukes and higher nobles had requested a private dinner with the queen, the King of Asham being one of them, which was a surprise. Elsa hadn't expected King Adrek to attend this year, but was more than happy to entertain the spice king.

An hour or so later, Gerda and Ingrid left the royal chambers. Ingrid had her measurements and would send the finished dresses to the queen later that evening. Gerda excused herself to take care of more morning duties leaving Elsa alone in her room and practically giddy with relief they were gone.

Leaning against the door for a few heartbeats, she breathed a relieved sigh. Revel hadn't been discovered…well, not in the way she'd expected anyway. Ingrid was a sharp woman and had figured out her secret without much trouble, but that didn't surprise or worry the queen. Shocking though it had been, the seamstress would never breathe a word of what she'd discussed or discovered with anyone, so Elsa's secret was safe. Still, that meant three people now knew about her lover.

_Where am I going wrong with keeping this secret? It's harder to keep under wraps than my powers. So what's different?_

The answer was simple. She didn't have the ability or luxury to lock herself in her room anymore in order to hide.

Exhaling again, because right now it felt like the weight of endless duties and responsibilities were again settling on her shoulders, Elsa moved over to her closet and reached for the door handle. "Revel, I'm sorry I locked you in—" she pulled up short, realizing a second later that what she was seeing wasn't a trick of her imagination, "what the hell are you doing!?"

"Well," Revel began popping his hip to one side so that the fabric of the green dress he'd managed to squeeze himself into fell over his bare leg, "when charm and wit are no longer enough to woo a woman, I figured a keen sense of style would be my next safe bet."

With careful, ginger steps, because walking in heels wasn't something he was used to and he didn't want to snap the thin spike, he strut forward on the balls of his feet and turned with a swish, the fabric of the dress swinging wildly around his knees in a flourish.

"Is…is that one of my summer dresses?" Elsa gaped, mouth making a near perfect "O" of disbelief. At the moment she was too stunned to be anything but…well, stunned.

"I don't know darling, it's whichever one fit me best," Revel said with a casual wave of the hand that eventually alighted on his cocked hip. "I think this bring out my eyes, don't you?"

"I…I—"

Someone knocked on the door and the two froze, a burst of ivy ice snaking out under the queen's feet.

"Yes?" Elsa called, her voice slightly strangled.

"It's Anna. Can I come in?"

Elsa was just about to begin the now arduous task of shoving Revel back in the closet when his face morphed into a devious grin and he called in an surprisingly accurate, albeit deeper, mimic of the queen's voice, "Come in!"

"No wait, Anna don't—"

"Ok good, because I need some help with these bodice laces…" Anna stopped as the door swung shut behind her, eyes growing as big as dinner plates. She looked between a completely mortified Elsa, head in her hands and ice at her feet, and a grinning Revel dressed in one of her sister's summer dresses before bursting into such heavy laughter she began to tear.

"Oh sweet God…what are you— no, I don't even want to know. Wait, yeah I do! How did you get into her dress? Are you wearing…are those _heels_?"

"Anna, this isn't the time—"

"Oh you know," Revel said speaking over Elsa, sashaying with overdramatic swings of his hips to the vanity and gingerly easing himself down into the chair. He attempted to cross his legs, felt the seams against his thighs straining, thought better of it, and simply leaned back with mock casualty. "A little stomach sucking, a little squeezing and pulling. You know, I've never realized how confining these things are in the legs. You women make moving in them look effortless, but coupled with heels," he raised his foot and shook it, eliciting another rancorous bout of laughter from Anna, "it's a wonder you all get around."

"I'm going to burn that dress now," Elsa mumbled, peaking at her lover over the tops of her fingers.

"I was going to add the matching bodice but thought better of it."

"If you can fit into _any_ of my bodices, I _will_ kill myself," she said glaring at him.

"Oh, don't be so overdramatic. I thought this color looked great on me. I should consider wearing it to the Summit ball on Friday."

"He's got a point," Anna admitted after wiping the tears from her eyes. "Green looks good on him, and I mean, look at how this dress hugs his curves!" The princess pulled Revel to his wobbly, heeled feet and motioned excitedly with her hands. "He's positively radiant!"

"I hate you both," was Elsa's reply as she iced the door so there were no more unexpected visitors.

"She doesn't mean that," Anna whispered out of the corner of her mouth. Then turning back to her sister she said, "Are you going to help me with my bodice or not?"

"Here, allow me." Revel took the blue laces from the princess and began carefully lacing the back of her bodice. It was a little difficult to get the necessary tightness around her stomach without putting too much pressure on the growing little one, but the Captain worked deftly, and in about a minute Anna was comfortably laced.

"You're very good at that," she said straightening her dress and smoothing her skirt.

"Practice," Revel replied casually.

Anna grinned devilishly and turned towards her sister who had just finished getting dressed in complete, mortified silence. "I'll bet you've gotten a ton of practice. Lacing and unlacing."

"_Anna_!" Elsa groaned.

"Oh like this is news to me," the princess said waving her sister off.

"It's still not something I want to talk about…in public."

"How is this public? We're in your private quarters." A thought suddenly occurred to her and she turned toward Revel who was still sitting ramrod straight in Elsa's vanity chair looking like perhaps the most muscular and ugly woman either of the sister's had ever seen. "How did you get in here past the guards at the staircase?"

"Secret passage," Revel answered before the queen could jump in and stop him.

Anna's eyes lit up. "Really?! Where?"

"The bookcase," he replies again before Elsa can intervene, pointing at the large bookcase near her door. The queen give him a wide eyed "why in the hell would you tell her about that" look, and all he can do is grin back at her.

"Is there really? Oh, that's just too cool! Can I see it? Where does it lead? Oh! Can I get into any other rooms from here…like say…my room?"

"I've actually not explored it all that much," Revel admitted with a small shrug.

Anna looked back at him from where she stood examining the bookcase and snorted with fresh laughter. There was just something so gut seizingly funny about seeing her sparing instructor and Elsa's lover sitting prim and proper at the queen's vanity as if preparing for a party. "I should do your makeup for you."

"Oh that would be grand!" Revel beamed setting his hands daintily on his knees and turning towards the queen. "Wouldn't you agree, dear? A little splash of color on my cheeks to bring out my fair complexion and maybe some eye shadow to bring out my eyes?" The Captain clapped his hands excitedly. Elsa blatantly ignored him, hands behind her back as she tied her bodice laces with deft fingers. "Oh, look at us! Having girl time and everything!"

"Come on Elsa, it's not going to kill you to smile," Anna chuckled. "At least you've found a man with a good sense of style. And he can even help you get ready in the morning! That's a plus!"

"I'm not talking to either of you," she said lifting her chin in a way that was more irritated sister than grumpy queen and walked stiffly to her door, deicing it with a wave. "If you'll excuse me, dear sister, I need to finish getting ready for my meetings this morning, and you need to be off to see the Physician."

Anna groaned, rolling her eyes as she moved towards the door. "I don't see why I need to see Brynja every other day. The baby will come when he's good and ready."

"You go because she asked you to and because she wants to make sure the baby hasn't shifted," Elsa answered dryly, hand on the ornate brass door handle. Anna attempted to stand her ground, squared her shoulders and stuck out her bottom lip in what could only be described as mildly defiant, but the queen's unblinking stare eventually wore her down and she threw her hands up in defeat.

"Alright, alright! I'm going. Just put those icy stares away before you freeze me again."

Elsa said nothing as her sister walked past, but just as she stepped over the threshold the queen sent a dervish of super cold air whirling towards her. The instant it hit her skirts and lifted the fabric off the ground was the instant it froze in place like a flag halted in mid flap. Anna jumped and squeaked in surprise, turning just in time to see her sister flash her a wicked grin before shutting the door behind her.

"I hope someone throws hot water on you and you melt!" Anna shouted from the hallway, attempting to push her skirts into a more normal position so walking wasn't awkward. It took a few tries, but eventually the ice melted enough that she could make it downstairs without much trouble, mumbling and grumbling all the way to the medical wing.

Elsa turned back towards Revel, eyeing him with a single perfectly arched eyebrow. The Captain returned her stare with a smug one of his own. "Well, my dear, are you going to help me out of this dress or am I going to have to waddle back to the guard tower in your heels?"

"I should make you do exactly that," she said canting her head slightly.

"You could, but this is expensive fabric that would never last the trip," Revel said standing, hands on his hips.

"Oh Revel," Elsa said with a smile so sweet it was devious, "I'm the queen. Expensive fabric means nothing to me, especially when revenge comes to mind."

And for the first time in a long time, the guard Captain felt genuinely nervous standing before the woman who had become his lover, the woman who was still very much his queen, the woman he was compelled to _obey_.

* * *

><p>"You want a carrot, eh? Well, what's the magic word?" Kristoff said waving an enticingly large carrot near Sven's snout. The reindeer made a lunge for it, but the ice harvester jumped away, tisking the big animal as if he were a naughty child. "That's not the magic word. Honestly Sven, where have your manners gone?"<p>

The bull reindeer grunted and bugled, giving his friend, because Kristoff would never think of Sven as a pet and assume the role of master, a plaintive look.

"_Please?_" Kristoff whined, pitching his voice to sound more like how Sven sounded in his head.

"Alright buddy," he consented and handed the treat over which Sven devoured in a greedy gulp. Shaking his head, Kristoff continued to brush the reindeer's slick coat, ridding it of all the loose winter hair that currently littered half the stall Sven occupied. Shedding month was never easy for the reindeer. Without being able to wander the woods and rid himself of the itchy leftover fur by rubbing against trees, Sven had to be brushed daily. It wasn't a chore that Kristoff disliked. In fact, he looked forward to the time he could spend with his best friend, just the two of them alone with their thoughts.

"I know buddy, I know. It's itchy and uncomfortable. I promise, after this whole Summit thing is over, we'll go into the mountains for a few days. Maybe even head up North Mountain to the ice palace. Would you like that? Huh? Would you like that?" He smiled when Sven grunted and stamped his feet happily.

Kristoff felt a much needed laugh build in his chest and felt the tension of the past few weeks lessening. Three years living in the Arendelle castle had taught him a lot. He'd learned courtly etiquette, or as close to it as he could come, learned the proper utensils for dinner, learned how to dance, learned how to speak with other nobles. Basically learned how to be the man Anna needed him to be. But his lessons weren't always pleasant and oftentimes led to sharp reminders that he wasn't really a part of the aristocracy. It didn't matter how much like a royal he acted, Kristoff knew in his heart of hearts he would always be an ice harvester. It had been his life before Anna, had been his entire existence, and learning how to juggle what felt like two lives, two different people, was difficult at the best of times. It was only in the stables and while alone with his wife that the mountain man felt the most at peace, and that feeling washed over him like a soothing balm as he continued to brush Sven and hum softly while Olaf snoozed in the corner. The little snowman had become the reindeers near constant companion when he wasn't wondering the castle or spending time with the royal sisters.

When the door leading to the stable master's room swung open suddenly, reindeer and ice harvester jumped in unison and stared at the man stumbling out of the room. Captain Revel quietly shut the door behind him, apparently not seeing Kristoff in the corner stall, and gingerly made his way across the stables towards the guard tower. Only when Revel was about to push open the lower stable door, the upper half locked to the wall to allow the warm breeze to flow through the stifling building, did Kristoff raise his voice.

"Something wrong with your feet?" the ice harvester inquired with a slight arch of his eyebrow. Revel spun and would have lost his balance, which was odd for the Captain because he was usually more sure footed, and had to grab hold of a nearby stall door to keep from toppling over.

"Baron Kristoff! I— I didn't see you there. My apologies, I should have—" he stumbled again barely catching himself, "taken better care to look around the stable. I—"

"Good lord, relax Revel," Kristoff cut in and gave the Captain a look somewhere between irritation and curiosity. That was another part of being "royal" he had to get used to. People always seemed nervous of approaching or accidently insulting you. Like people weren't human and forgot their manners sometimes. Nothing to get bent out of shape about, but Kristoff had learned it was the principle of the matter. He was royalty now and therefore was to be treated as such.

_Sometimes I wish things could be normal again. I'd like to be just normal _Kristoff_ without the added title of Barron. People act more themselves when they're talking to a peasant rather than talking to a noble._

"Of course, my lord," Revel replied tightly, sketching a bow while trying to hide his wince.

"No, I'm not 'my lord'. I'm Kristoff. _Just Kristoff_," he stressed and instantly regretted his tone of voice. Revel wasn't doing anything wrong; Kristoff was just irritated this morning. He'd woken up in a gray mood that hadn't yet abated. Sighing again, he set down Sven's brush and stepped out of the stable. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. Please, just address me by my name. I know it seems strange, but sometimes I want to be plain old me and not 'my lord' this or 'Baron Kristoff' that. Just…just Kristoff."

Revel felt a flash of sympathy for the man and nodded, consenting to the ice harvester's request. "As you wish…Kristoff."

"Thank you," the mountain man sighed with relief, never so grateful to hear his birth name spoke aloud. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Whenever Anna spoke his name, whether it was in the annoyed, eye-rolling tone, or the husky "I'm ready, take me now" whisper, it always sent a shiver down his spine. Three years had done little to dent the impact she had on him on a day to day basis.

As the two stood regarding one another in a thin silence, Kristoff suddenly noticed what was causing the Captain's discomfort and canted his head, thoroughly confused. "Why the hell are you walking around in heels?"

Revel glanced down at his feet, and his face ignited in a fearsome blush powerful enough to turn his ears burgundy red. "Ah…well…I thought I'd try out a new fashion that just came in from France. You see, it's all the rage for men to wear heels now. So I thought, what the hell. Must keep up with the times."

Kristoff glanced back at Sven, face scrunched in the "is her serious?" look, and the both turned that same unconvinced expression onto the Captain. "I'm not buying it. You made her mad, didn't you?"

He'd said it quietly enough and there was no one present with them in the stables, yet still Revel grimaced and glanced around just to be sure. Finally, after staring at his ice encased feet for a few moments, he sighed. "You could say this is my punishment for a less than amusing prank."

"She put ice shoes on your feet," Kristoff chuckled, unable to hide his grin. Anna might have been the more mischievous and adventurous of the royal sisters, but Elsa hid a wicked streak a mile long behind her sweet smile and perfect grace. Under it all, she was just as devious as Anna and had nearly limitless power at her disposal. The ice harvester was suddenly very happy he had little Anna to stand between him and the queen if this was how Elsa dished out paybacks.

"Yes she did. And they won't dissolve until I get to the guard tower."

"Can I ask what you did to earn the ire of the queen?" Kristoff asked, arms folded across his chest, sly grin starting to pull at the corner of his lips. If it were possible, Revel's face deepened in color.

"I…" he waffled a bit, clearly torn between keeping his mouth shut and enduring his embarrassment in silence and confiding in another man who knew all too well what Elsa was capable of when pushed. "I put on one of her dresses and ran around her room," Revel finally said in a faint whisper.

Kristoff blinked in surprise before a wave of laughter hit him before he could stop it. "Gods above Revel, what the hell were you thinking?"

"It was a joke. I was just trying to get her to laugh."

"I don't need to tell you that your plan seems to have backfired."

"Clearly," the Captain grumbled and shifted his weight, the balls of his feet screaming. He was starting to understand why Elsa griped so much about having to wear heels. Aside from being massively constricting, they forced the wearer to walk constantly on their toes! What was the point of this fashion?

_Never again. I'll never make fun of her sore feet again, I swear to God._

"So, what happens if you get caught?" Kristoff asked after clearing his system of giggles. "People will know where those shoes came from. I mean…not many people can replicate translucent blue heels."

"Yes, well. It's up to me to get to my destination without being seen."

"Clever," the mountain man nodded, appreciating the layers of Elsa's revenge. Revel not only had to get to the guard tower, a feat not easily done when you weren't use to walking in elevated shoes, but he also had to make it there as if nothing were amiss. As if he wasn't wearing perhaps the most elegant looking pair of women's footwear this side of Corona.

"Our queen is anything if not a woman capable of varying degrees of deviousness. Lesson learned on my part."

"Sven and I could walk next to you," Kristoff offered with a shrug. Despite his mixed feelings towards Revel, he didn't want the Captain subjected to too much public ridicule. The pain he was feeling was punishment enough.

It wasn't that the mountain man disliked Revel. There wasn't much about him that would make anyone dislike the Captain, but that was also the problem. There wasn't much about him. Kristoff knew next to nothing about the Arendelle guard captain aside from what Anna had told him second hand from Elsa, and that was sparse at best. He knew Revel had come from a sordid background and had left home at a young age. He'd lived on the streets in another kingdom before accidently burning it down. Later he came to Arendelle, but it was his unwillingness to speak about his past that raised a flag of suspicion. One of the things Kristoff valued most in a relationship was trust. He trusted Anna with everything; every facet of his life with the trolls, all the secrets of his teen years, all the hardship of his adult life. There wasn't a stone unturned in his life's story, and the same went for Anna. Kristoff knew everything about her, yet here was a man who had somehow stolen Elsa's heart yet wouldn't speak a word about his years before leaving home. What was he hiding? Better yet, who or what was he hiding from? Something about the Captain niggled at the back of his head like a worm burrowing through an apple. What it was, he couldn't say, but he didn't like feeling this way towards someone who ran in his immediate circle, who walked so closely to his family. Kristoff frowned at the swirling thoughts in his mind, previous mirth slipping away.

"Thank you for the offer Barr— I mean, Kristoff, but I'm afraid if I'm aided in any way, she'll find out. I'll do as she asks and return to my tower in…well in these. I certainly don't want to earn any more of her ire." Revel realized the mood around Kristoff had changed at about the same time Sven did and nudged his friend gently. The big man's face had suddenly become stony, a sure indication he was upset about something. Kristoff was an easy man to read, and it didn't take much deducing from the Captain to realize the ice harvester's sudden mood shift somehow pertained to him.

"Is there something wrong?"

Kristoff was silent for long enough Revel began to question whether or not the ice harvester had heard him. Finally, he seemed to come to some kind of internal decision and leaned back against the open stall, arms folded across his broad chest.

"What's your end game, Revel? What's the point of all of this?"

"I'm…I'm not sure I follow," the Captain frowned.

"I mean this…" he waved his hand as if indicating something far away, "thing with Elsa. Why are you even bothering? It's not like the two of you can go anywhere with your relationship. She's stations above you, a damn queen, so why are you even bothering? What are you trying to get, because that's the only reason I could see you continuing this charade. You want something from her."

Revel felt a different kind of heat rise into his cheeks as the implications of what Kristoff was suggesting fully registered in his mind. His eyes practically ignited with green fire as he glared across the stable at the mountain man. "No, you don't know me; because if you did you'd know I would never take anything from Elsa. I'm not like those station hunting bastards looking for their next leg up. I know my place, unlike some of us."

Kristoff understood Revel's jab and felt his blood begin to boil, a snarl coiling in his throat. No, that's not what he'd done with Anna. He loved her, station or title be damned. End of story. "Watch yourself, _Captain._"

"As I recall, you and I aren't using titles at this moment, _ice harvester_. Perhaps it is you who needs to watch himself. You seem to forget where you came from and presume yourself above the rest of us."

Kristoff had never been a violent man, passiveness was a troll trait he'd learned years ago, but something within him snapped and suddenly he was across the room and looming over Revel like a giant. The Captain realized in that startling moment that the ice harvester was a beast of a man well beyond the normal size of most. His chest, which Revel was more than eye level with, was like a barrel, his arms like tree boughs, his hands as big as frying pans. Suddenly, Revel was reminded of the story of David and Goliath, and he could certainly sympathize with David. Facing down a giant was terrifying, even more so when he knew he couldn't run away while wearing women's shoes.

Revel opened his mouth to say something, anything to defuse the situation that was quickly spiraling into disaster, but Kristoff put a stop to anything that might have come out of his mouth. The big man grabbed him by the front of his shirt, physically lifting him up off the ground and shoving him against the wall with a forceful thud. Some of the air rushed out of Revel's lungs, and he wheezed. They were so close Kristoff could smell the distinctive perfume Elsa wore still clinging to the Captain's shirt.

"I'm only going to say this once, so now would be a good time to open your ears. I don't give a fuck what you think of me and how I came about owning my title, but you will not insult my wife or the queen. What's done is done, and I don't need to justify myself to you. Fact of the matter is, I don't like you because I can't trust you. I've been in the ice business long enough to know when I've caught the scent of bullshit, and you stink like shit. You're hiding something, and I don't appreciate liars lurking around my family. So you get this through your pretty little head. If you ever, _ever_ hurt Elsa in any way, I _will_ make you _bleed_."

Before Revel could answer, Kristoff dropped him and walked back to a nervous Sven. The reindeer followed his friend out of the stable, glancing back every now and then at a thoroughly shaken guard captain who was having trouble picking himself up off the stable floor. It wasn't that he was scared of Kristoff, Revel had faced down bigger and meaner men, it was the promise of a different kind of pain in the ice harvester's eyes. Kristoff was Anna's husband, therefore he had her ear. If he wanted to set a wedge between him and Elsa it wouldn't be hard to do, and he wouldn't be blunt about it either.

Rising unsteadily to his wobbly feet, Revel made it to the guard tower without incident or being seen. Just as Elsa had said, the second he was inside the heels dissolved, but he hardly felt the change. His mind was on his hearth and the secret he had hidden there. A secret that Kristoff knew he was hiding. A secret Revel knew could destroy everything he'd carefully built over the years.

* * *

><p>The Spring Trade Summit came on like a multicolored hurricane that slammed into Arendelle with unapologetic force. It wasn't so much a formal event as it was a massive trade celebration that brought in hundreds of merchants and tradesman from all around the adjoining kingdoms and beyond. For one week Arendelle was turned into the mecca of all things bought and sold, and every night, once the sun had slipped under the horizon, the taverns, inns, and courtyard were turned into a melting pot of revelers and party goers eager to socialize and talk business. To say it was a weeklong party would have only been partially correct because there were agreements and trade deals struck, new merchants hired, old ones fired, goods ordered and goods returned. And the woman at the epicenter of it all was the queen.<p>

Elsa prepared all year for the Summit, organizing everything down to the letter. Those attending, those who were not, which merchants were given permission to set up stalls, which were forced to share, even where the dignitaries and nobles stayed while within the city proper; everything revolved around a strategy that would ensure Arendelle's growth and the growth of her hamlets and trade partners. Everything played out like a living chessboard.

Monday saw the start of the festivities with a lively parade and town square festival. It was the first chance vendors and merchants had to make a good, lasting impression, and they pulled out all the stops. Overnight the castle courtyard and town square were turned into a kaleidoscope of different colored tents and vendor stalls, some going as far as gilding their temporary dwellings with ornaments and feathers like competing peacocks. Food vendors squeezed in where they could, the smells of their combined cooking both enticing and overpowering, but it was within the palace that the real work began.

Elsa would rise an hour before sunrise and meet a handful of select nobles in private quarters. Together they would eat a small breakfast before venturing headlong into heated discussions ranging from everything from raw material trade, mined minerals, weapons forging, ship building and goods transportation. No stone was left unturned, and every word exchanged was meticulously recorded by Kai or one of the manservant's trusted scribes. Elsa bartered and traded, bought and sold, haggling like a seasoned merchant until the price of the goods she needed was well within budget. It was exhausting, at times confusing, work, and the queen thanked God more than once that Kai was present to refresh her memory when the bartering began in earnest. Lunch provided a much needed hour break before the next set of nobles met with the queen. Dinner was Elsa's only chance for separation from her duties, but this year she decided to entertain the visiting royalty from neighboring kingdoms as much as possible. So on Monday evening she sat down to dinner with her first royal guest, King Adrek of Asham.

He was already waiting for her when she arrived, early by five minutes. Adjusting herself one final time to make sure everything was in proper order, she nodded for Kai to open the door. The manservant announced her in the usual manor, his voice echoing through the dining room and bringing those seated to their feet. Else swept the room, her emerald green and ice accented dress flowing around her, and was surprised to find King Adrek standing by the fireplace admiring the antique trinkets her father had collected during his youth. When the announcement met his ears, Adrek turned sharply and swooped into a perfectly smooth bow so deep he bent nearly in half.

"Good evening, Queen Elsa," he said rising, cheerful smile in place.

This was the first time Elsa had ever set eyes on the elusive Asham king, and he was a visibly striking man. His height was average, a little on the shorter side of six foot, but what he lacked in height he made up for in physique. Under his velvet black and gold doublet, King Adrek was broad chested and thick limbed, yet he moved with the agile grace and sure footedness of a trained fencer. His dark hair, made darker by the shadows cast from the crackling fireplace, hung in curly waves around his ears. His beard was well maintained and shaved close to his face, ghosting his jaw with just a shadow of dark color.

"Good evening, King Adrek. I hope that I haven't kept you waiting," Elsa said stepping up to the man and extending her hand. Adrek again swooped into a perfect bow, right hand behind his back while his left gently gripped the queen's offered hand. His lips brushed her knuckles before he straightened and drew back a step.

"Not at all, Majesty. I was just admiring your collection of antique pipes."

"They were my father's. He collected them during his travels and even carved a few himself," Elsa said indicating the five pipes displayed on the fireplace mantle with a smile. It had been a quirky habit of her father handed down from his father that grew into something of an obsession. King Agdar had never been one to smoke, unlike Elsa's grandfather, but he appreciated the craftsmanship and skill that went into creating an ornate pipe. His love for them was only matched by his curiosity for creating his own. The five Elsa displayed were her father's first few attempts at whittling, and at times the queen would pull one down and run her fingers along the rough cut wood, imagining her father bent over his workbench trying to draw out the design he saw in the naked wood.

"Your father had a keen eye for detail," King Adrek said following the queen back to the table.

"He loved working with his hands," Elsa chuckled stepping up behind her chair. As was customary, the visiting royal pulled the queen's chair back and allowed her to be seated before seating himself. Elsa nodded her thanks as Adrek took his seat to her right while Anna, who had yet to arrive, would have sat to her left. The princess was late for dinner, but Elsa already knew about her impending tardiness. Her meeting with Physician Brynja had been pushed back until later that evening. Anna had been adamant about participating in the festival in town, thus delaying the appointment, so she and Kristoff would join them once finished.

"I do believe introductions are in order. May I introduce my personal attendant, Fritz Drescher," Adrek said indicating the man sitting next to him.

Fritz stood and bowed sharply, his bright hazel eyes locking with the queen's. "A pleasure, Your Majesty. Thank you for having us this evening."

Elsa inclined her head and smiled, all the while feeling a tingle arch across the brand on her shoulder. She stared at Fritz for a moment longer than was necessary, taking in his sharp, handsome features. Without seeing him in motion, she couldn't tell whether or not Fritz held the same natural grace as Adrek, but from just his brief bow and the hardness in his eyes, Elsa could guess this was a man who had seen his fair share of fights. And if the scare running from the bridge of his nose, under his right eyes, and into his blond hairline wasn't any indication of his combative nature, his unblinking, cold stare was.

"Likewise. Thank you, Master Fritz," the queen said with a polite nod. A thought seemed to strike her and she looked around expectantly. "Is Prince Symon not joining us this evening?"

"Um…regrettably no, Majesty," Adrek replied with an apologetic smile. "He…well that is—"

"He wanted to see the festivities," Fritz interjected flatly and flicked an unreadable glance at the king.

"Yes," Adrek admitted with a sigh. "I'm afraid that, because I have done little traveling, my little brother was quite eager to partake in the festival in town. I do hope you won't take offence to his absence, Majesty."

"Of course not. I cannot blame a young man for wanting to enjoy a few hours of revelry," Elsa said with a small laugh. With having Anna for a sister, she understood how younger siblings could be, especially when they'd been caged within castle walls for most of their adolescent life. The year directly following the Great Freeze, when Elsa had declared the gates to remain permanently open, Anna had gone into town nearly every day and wouldn't return until nightfall. So yes, Elsa understood Prince Symon's need for exploration.

"I look forward to meeting him later this week," she added before waving for the patiently waiting servants to begin bringing in hors d'oeuvres. Once finished with the appetizers, the main course was wheeled in on large silver carts and arranged on the table with almost clockwork precision. Just as the last plate was being set on the table, the door to the dining room burst open and in waddled Anna followed closely by Kristoff.

"Oh good, you've just started the main course. I'm sorry we're late," the princess said ducking into a quick bow directed towards Adrek and his personal attendant. The King and Fritz rose from their chairs and bowed simultaneously.

"Princess Anna, a pleasure to finally meet you. Please accept my congratulations on your pregnancy."

"Thank you, King…" Anna trailed off, her face heating with a bright blush. She really hadn't been paying attention to Elsa when her sister briefed her about dinner this evening.

"_Anna_," Elsa whispered under her breath, shooting her a disapproving frown. Regardless of whether or not Anna participated in the events of the Trade Summit, she should have at least remembered the name of the royal she was having dinner with.

"Quite alright, Majesty. I imagine the princess has seen and heard many faces and names today, and mine isn't anything spectacular. King Adrek of Asham, at your service, Highness."

Anna's eyebrows rose as she bowed in response, face brightening. "Asham? Our guard Captain is from Asham as well."

"Is he? Well, it appears we live in a much smaller world than previously thought," King Adrek said canting his head in a slightly curious way before turning towards Kristoff and offered him a broad, toothy smile. "This must be your husband."

"Barron Kristoff," the mountain man said dipping at the waist after pulling out Anna's chair and helping her sit.

"A pleasure to meet you both. It gladdens my heart to see a family grow. My congratulations to you both."

After the necessary introductions were out of the way, Elsa declared dinner begun. Both parties tucked in and only after the first course was complete and the second was being brought out did Adrek hold up a hand to forestall anyone from taking another bite.

"Your Majesties, if you please hold a moment. I have something that might interest you and make this dining experience a little more adventurous." With the flick of his wrist, Adrek motioned for Fritz to open the small box next to his left elbow. All three Arendelle royals watched curiously as the personal attendant withdrew three white silk bulbs and handed them to the king.

"My curiosity is piqued, King Adrek," Elsa said setting her fork down and eyeing the silk bulbs. Had this been any other royal, she would have been instantly suspicious of strange bundles, but Adrek was commonly known as the Spice King because of his trade connections with the Orient. Though the threat of poisoning was still present and was what any level headed monarch remained cautious of, Elsa had no reason to distrust the Asham king. That didn't mean she trusted him entirely, but for now she would indulge her curiosity.

"These are but a few spice samples I have brought with me. The first," Adrek indicated, pointing to one of the silk bulbs tied off with a green ribbon, "is what's called the Heavenly Five and it consists of a mixture of star anise, fennel seed, Szechuan pepper, cassia, and cloves. Granted, each spice on their own provides adequate seasoning, but the five combined creates an entirely different taste altogether." Adrek opened the bulb and handed it to Elsa. She gave it a tentative sniff, and instantly a bouquet of aromas blossomed in her nose. She could identify most of the herbs, but a few were new but not altogether unpleasant. All five combined certainly made for a robust seasoning.

"What can this spice be paired with?" she asked sniffing the bundle again before handing it over to Anna who repeated the gesture.

"Anything from poultry and fish, to fresh vegetables and thin soups. The spices are versatile, so if you would prefer to substitute on for a more common seasoning it can be done."

"This is certainly something I wish my cooks to experiment with," Elsa smiled and turned her attention on her sister. "What do you think, Anna?"

"I think Gerda will enjoy playing with recipes. We could definitely use some new dishes. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love what we eat, but something new would be awesome."

Adrek chuckled. "I agree that new culinary endeavors are something to be cherished."

"Do you enjoy cooking, King Adrek?" Elsa inquired taking a sip of her wine.

"I do, actually. My father taught me and my brothers when I was very young."

_Seems Asham fathers are fond of teaching their children how to cook,_ Elsa thought taking another drink and suppressing a smile at the thought of Revel. A sudden pang of longing shot through her, and she struggled to keep her pleasant mask in place. She hadn't seen him all day and wouldn't see him the rest of the week until after the Summit wound to a close. Such was the hectic life of the queen of Arendelle and her Captain of the guard.

"This," Adrek continued, untying the blue ribbon securing the second bundle, "is fine ground ginger; an invaluable spice I'm sure you are familiar with."

"I certainly am," Elsa replied taking the small bundle offered by the king. Ginger was a priceless spice worth its weight in gold. A bulb like the one she was holding could sustain an average worker for nearly a year.

"I have a direct, untapped trade line with a ginger merchant willing to do business with the North. I'm sure the benefits of creating a trade agreement with him could be invaluable to both Arendelle and Asham."

"I believe I would like to speak with this merchant of yours," Elsa said slowly setting the bulb down.

The Asham king nodded and handed her the third and final bulb, this one tied off with a red ribbon. "The last spice I've brought is something I thought we all could enjoy. That is, if you have the gastrula fortitude to endure its effects."

"I might have to sit this one out," Anna said looking nervously at the bundle and setting a hand on her stomach.

"Of course, Highness. Although peppers have been known to strengthen the blood and cleanse the body of unneeded toxins; something a woman heavy with child might appreciate," Adrek said with a wide smile.

"This is a pepper?"

"More precisely, pepper powder. It is called the Jolokia pepper and it is found primarily in the warmer regions of India. It is very hot and is used to season almost everything. I have grown quite fond of the warmer peppers over the years and would like to spread their knowledge. I would recommend," Adrek quickly said reaching out to stop Anna who was leaning in to sniff the bulb, "not sniffing this particular bundle. The pepper in powder form is extremely potent and has been known to cause temporary blindness if gotten into the eyes."

Anna froze, eyes flicking down to look at the innocuous bulb in her hand. Kristoff gently relieved her of the bundle and handed it carefully back to Adrek.

"Please don't be alarmed. I assure you that a tiny pinch of the powder sprinkled atop any dish will provide a slight warmth to your meal. The more you add the hotter it will become, but it is a pleasant experience when done in small doses." As if to demonstrate, Adrek took a pinch of the pepper powder and seasoned his broiled trout, careful to wipe his hands clean before proceeding further. Fritz wordlessly did the same.

"Alright, I'm curious now," Elsa ventured after a moment. Adrek handed her the bundle and she carefully pinched a small amount of burgundy pepper powder between her thumb and forefinger. "Anna, are you sure you don't want to try?"

The princess gave her sister an incredulous look, lips pursed. "You're usually not an adventurous eater. What's changed?"

"Perhaps I'm feeling more adventurous and am in need of a change," Elsa offered with a small shrug.

"Uh huh, I'm sure. Seems there's been an awful lot of _changes_ taking place around here these past few months. Can't say I don't like them. Who knew such a tiny shift in perspective could have such a huge effect on you, dear sister," Anna implied with a sly smile.

Elsa narrowed her eyes at Anna, and all five people seated around the table felt the temperature dip a bit. It was a silent warning for Anna to stop talking, but the princess merely laughed and took the bundle from the queen. Our of the corner of her eye, Elsa saw King Adrek shifted fractionally, clearly unnerved by the temperature change, while Fritz seemed to freeze in place, eyes snapping between her and Anna as if gauging something.

"Do be careful how much you use, Princess Anna," Adrek advised watching her grab a sizable pinch. "Start out small."

"Yes, _dear sister_, start out small. We wouldn't want you _blindly_ rushing into things," Elsa smirked, eyebrow cocked. Kristoff fought back a laugh by coughing into his hand and adding a small pinch of the powder to his fish. His wife shot him several withering glares that he returned with a beaming smile.

"So," Anna said glancing around the table, "who wants to go first?"

Remarkably, it was the ice harvester who took the first bite of his spiced fish, tentatively chewing the morsel as if at any moment it might bite him back. And it did just that.

"Oly gawd, 'ut the 'ell?" he coughed spitting out the fish as tears welled in his eyes and sweat began to prickle his brow. He grabbed for the nearest available cup and downed the wine in two large gulps, but it did little to sooth the searing burn trickling down his throat. He went so far as sticking out his tongue and fanning it, eyes beginning to water. "Thucking Christh, that's hawt."

Adrek leaned back and laughed, a hearty, good natured sound. "Yes, Master Kristoff. It is warm the first time around."

"Warm?" Kristoff gaped, his tongue feeling like it was melting and swelling at the same time. "Iths volcanic!"

"Oh, don't be so overdramatic, Kristoff," Anna laughed and patted her husband patronizingly on the shoulder. "Please don't mind him. He's got a sensitive constitution."

"Oh boo I?" he slurred, his tongue feeling like a sea sponge in his mouth. "Well then, yew try it!"

"I'm sure it's not that hot," Anna chuckled spreading the powder around on her fish before scooping a large bite into her mouth. To say her reaction was similar to Kristoff's would have been an understatement. The princess practically gagged after her first couple of seconds, spitting the fish out and pounding the table with the flat of her palm while fighting to keep breathing. Her face turned the same cherry red as her husband's, and she drank her watered down wine plus half a pitcher of water before she was able to bring herself to speak, but even that was strained.

"I…thas really hawt," she wheezed, tears and sweat running down her face. Anna sniffed as mucus began leaking out of her nose and had to bury her face in a napkin for a few moments. "You—" cough "—" really weren't kidding. I don't know…know how you eat that stuff straight faced."

"Years of practice," Fritz said cracking the first hint of a smile since dinner had begun. Elsa couldn't help but shiver at the expression on the assistants face. It was like watching a shark grin.

"Queen Elsa, it appears your sister and brother-in-law have been beaten by the pepper. Are you willing to take the leap and try?"

"I don't see why I shouldn't," Elsa replied and took a bite. Anna and Kristoff, still fighting off the molten lava clinging to their tongues and throats, leaned in and watched the queen expectantly. The princess seemed particularly interested in her sister's reaction and watched her closely while nursing another glass of water. Elsa chewed and swallowed, appreciating the complex taste the spice brought out in her fish, but remarkably, she didn't feel the heat. Quite the contrary. She felt a slight tingling on her tongue and at the back of her throat as if she'd eaten a large amount of peppermint.

"Well, it's definitely a different sensation, but I— what are you staring at?" She frowned at her sister who was watching her with wide eyed. Elsa realized Adrek and Fritz were also watching her and arched a curious eyebrow, glancing between the two parties.

"Your…breath…" Anna said leaning in close enough to her sister that she could smell her perfume.

"My what?"

"Breathe out again."

"Anna, I'm not sure what you're—" Elsa realized what Anna had seen and clapped a hand over her mouth at the same moment her sister burst out laughing. Even with her hand up, Elsa could see tendrils of steam leaking between the cracks of her fingers like smoke. Slowly, she lowered her hand and exhaled, mystified when her breath turned to vapor in front of her face.

"What on earth?"

"That…well that's definitely a new reaction," King Adrek said and broke into a fit of rich laughter. "I didn't realize there were dragons in Arendelle." Awkward tension dissolving, the rest of the table, save for Fritz who remained stone faced, laughed as well but none harder than the royal sisters.

"Where have you been hiding that talent? I didn't know you could do that," Anna managed after her giggles subsided.

"Neither did I. What an amusing side effect. It has to be from the peppers."

"Well, we should have guessed that would happen," Adrek said adding another dash of powder to his fish and taking a large bite. "When you throw ice on fire it steams. Truly, Queen Elsa, your gifts are remarkable."

Elsa felt heat rise into her cheeks and smiled. "Thank you, King Adrek. I think this has been one of my most memorable dinners to date."

* * *

><p>Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays went much the same way as the rest of the week, the ever revolving door of different nobles continuously meeting with the queen. It was tiresome work that left Elsa exhausted and desperate for the solitude of her room by the time night fell, but there was an added measure of loneliness to her quarters this week. Due to the amount of guests currently staying the palace, Elsa and Revel slept apart for the first time in weeks, and the change was jarring. She hadn't realized it, but she'd become comfortable with the Captain occupying her bed, and the thought of sleeping without him was troubling. The first night was the worst. She tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable and feeling as if the bed she'd slept in for years had suddenly become foreign to her.<p>

Friday eventually arrived, and Elsa couldn't have been more relieved. No meetings that morning, no clamoring nobles and royals to wade through, no expectant guests. For the first time in days she was allowed to sleep in and move about at her own leisure before attending the traditional Summit Ball that evening. Most of the palace guests had departed to their respective ships and carriages earlier that morning, freeing the castle from the backlog of to many bodies. Elsa took full advantage of the exodus and walked the halls of the residency wing at a leisurely stroll, checking in on the cleaning staff and reveling in the peace and silence.

As she turned a blind corner and was passing an alcove in the wall that housed a marble statue of one of her ancestors, a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed her. Before she could react, Elsa was dragged into the nook and pressed against the far wall in the statues shadow with surprising force. Her first reaction was to push whoever had grabbed her away as fast as possible, but her hands were pinned at her side. Panic boiled in her chest that almost manifested in a powerful blast of magic had a pair of familiar lips not connected with hers. She smelled his distinctive musk and felt calloused yet blessedly gentle hands cup her face and her fear instantly evaporated.

"You're going to get yourself killed doing that one of these days," Elsa said smiling up at Revel.

"I guess you could say I'm addicted to the thrill," he replied nuzzling the soft skin of her neck.

"No, you have a death wish."

"I've missed you," he whispered pressing his forehead against hers, warm breath washing against her face. The queen smiled and put a hand against his cheek, closing her eyes and just enjoying the familiar comfort of her lover's closeness.

"I've missed you too. This has been an exceptionally long week."

"Agreed. I'll be happy when all of these tourists finally leave."

Elsa rested her head against the Captain's shoulder and sighed contentedly. "I take it policing the town was a chore?"

"I'll tell you about it later," he breathed, searching and finding her cool lips. "Right now, I just want you."

The queen groaned softly and spared a glance at the hallway. "I really need to—"

"You deserve a break, however short," Revel interrupted, kissing her again. For a brief moment Elsa tensed, but the magnetic pull of her lover and the unexpected need building inside her unchecked quickly swayed her uncertainty. As did Revel's lips moving away from hers and traveling down her jaw and slender neck, leaving blooms of fire in their wake. She suppressed a stream of nervous giggles that quickly turned into breathy sighs as the Captain deepened their embrace and began nibbling on her ear and shoulder. Elsa felt his hands begin to wander, fingers sliding along the spine of her bodice and down across the thin fabric of her skirt. With a swift jerk she was off the ground, legs wrapped tight around his waist and arms around his neck. Skirts bunched around her waist, Elsa felt Revel grind himself against her, the hardness of his arousal making her moan with unexpected pleasure as it brushed sensitive areas.

"We— we're going to get caught," the queen breathed into his ear, though there was no real urgency for him to stop. A week apart had been more difficult than previously thought, and Elsa hadn't realized she burned with the same need as Revel until his first kiss ignited the smoldering embers in her abdomen and pelvis.

"Like I said, I enjoy the thrill," Revel growled. He ground against her again, deliberately slow, savoring how she shivered. "But if you'd like, I could always stop and we could continue tonight."

"I…" Elsa bit into her bottom lip, her body practically vibrating with arousal. "Please, d-don't make me c-choose."

Revel ginned deviously against her neck, his tongue laving at her quickly warming skin. "Then I'll make the decision for you."

She felt him shift, fabric being draw aside, before the heat of his head pressed against her opening. A groan slipped past her lips, another wave of shivers running the length of her spine. Slowly, teasingly, Revel slid in until he was completely submerged within her wetness, hissing as a mix of pain and pleasure ignited around his groin. Elsa's legs tightened and she rolled her hips, savoring her lover's rigidity and how he filled her. Their bodies began moving as one, hungry for one another like starved animals. Fingers tangled in hair, lips came together with bruising force, nails raked cloth and halted breaths became barely restrained moans and cries as orgasmic fire ignited between the two. They were both more than ready and peaked quickly, fire igniting into a nova of blue and white sparks that left both queen and Captain breathless and spent.

"My, don't you look satisfied," Revel grinned down at his love as he helped support her until she regained feeling in her legs. Elsa could feel the heat in her cheeks like a forge and pushed him playfully.

"Maybe I needed that," she said taking a moment to test her balance before straightening her skirts and bodice. Revel backed away a step but the queen wasn't yet done with him. She yanked him back towards her and pulled him into another forceful kiss, her tongue brushing against his. The Captain moved closer, pinning her in place, hands pressed flat on either side of her head.

"I really have missed you," he said watching her cerulean eyes dance in the twilight darkness.

"Me too. I'm looking forward to tonight." Elsa smiled and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "Are you still coming?"

"And miss the opportunity to show these poor backwater nobles how true monarchy dances? Not a chance. I'll see you at six."

"I'm looking forward to it," Elsa said giving her lover one last kiss goodbye before he ducked out of the alcove after making sure the coast was clear. She left a few seconds later, a much needed spring in her step despite her hips being a tad sore. Tonight was the end of the Summit and her chance to finally unwind. She would dance and socialize, mingle with her peers and be the ever gracious hostess, but more importantly, she would dance with Revel and spend some much needed time with him and her family.

* * *

><p>"You look beautiful," Elsa smiled as Anna walked into the ballroom a half hour before the ball began. The princess was wearing a one piece lavender dress paired with a black, soft suede vest with ornate silver buttons. Her skirt stopped just under her knees and flowed like water as she walked, shimmering with delicate swirling ice patterns complements of her sister. The delicate ice flower ornaments helping to keep her braided bun pinned in place were also from the queen and glittered like diamonds in the golden light of the hall.<p>

"I look fat," Anna retorted with a sour look down at herself. It was near impossible to see her feet anymore, the expanse of her stomach eclipsing most of her vision.

"No, you look pregnant. There's a difference, dear sister."

"_Elsa_," the princess whined, flailing her arms helplessly before resting her forehead against the queen's collarbone. "How am I going to make it through tonight? My ankles look like pig legs, which means they are nonexistent, and I can barely walk without waddling. And God forbid I have to dance. I have no depth perception with this little one jutting out in front of me." Anna gave her swollen stomach a gentle pat and frowned. "Being pregnant isn't as fun as people make it out to be."

"Who on earth said it was fun?" Elsa asked, eyebrows rising into her hairline. Though her memories were hazy, the queen could remember her mother's pregnancy with Anna and the complications she'd run into during her final weeks.

"You always hear courtly women talking about how _wonderful_ it was carrying their children and how _blessed_ they were. Well, I can certainly tell you, I'm blessed alright. Blessed with being constantly out of breath, having swollen ankles, and a stomach that could very easily deflect a croquet ball. This is certainly not fun. You look stunning by the way."

Elsa smiled and wrapped her arms around Anna's shoulders, planting a kiss atop her head. "I know this isn't easy for you, but it will all be worth it in the end. You'll see. And thank you."

Anna snorted and stepped back. "I'll have to take your word for it. Anyway, where has this dress been hiding?"

The queen looked down at the gown she'd been saving especially for tonight and grinned. "I had Ingrid specially make it for the ball."

It was a stunning piece of craftsmanship that only Ingrid's years of exquisite skill had been able to create. Usually, Elsa preferred to wear colors associated with her kingdom and her powers. Purple, blue, and green of varying degrees were the normal colors found in her wardrobe, but she had wanted something special for tonight. So the queen commissioned the royal seamstress to make a burgundy half shoulder dress that laced up the back with black ribbon and required no bodice for support. The effect this created was stunning. Elsa's elegant figure was on show for the world to see. The dark fabric, which stood in stark contrast to her pale skin and platinum blond hair, was silk smooth along her torso before it transformed into textured ruching from the waist down. For an added measure of elegance, and because the queen liked to show off her powers in subtle ways, chunks of clear and turquoise will-ice clung to the fabric around the outer edges, adding a pop of glittering wonder. Elsa's final measure of elegance was her hair which she wore down like she had during the Yule Ball. Three braids began at her temples and conjoined behind her head with a white gold snowflake charm, the rest of her hair cascading down her back in gentle waves.

"Red actually looks really good on you," Anna said stepping back to take in the full effects of the dress. "Definitely makes it look like your skin is glowing. But then again, that might be because you're meeting a certain someone on the dance floor this evening."

Elsa flushed and looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, sure you don't. I'm also sure that this dress wasn't made to catch our guard Captain's eye either."

"I admit to nothing," Elsa said fighting back a grin.

"Your denial is affirmation enough," Anna chuckled and stepped onto the dais behind her. With a thankful sigh she sank down into the ornate chair set beside her sister's throne, massaging whatever part of her leg her arms could reach over the swell of her stomach.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Elsa asked kneeling in front of her sister and gently rubbing her calves with icy hands.

"Oh my God, that feels wonderful."

"Anna, go on back upstairs and get some rest."

"And miss the chance to see you and Revel dance again? Absolutely not! Plus, I want to say goodbye to a few nobles I met this week. Have you by chance met Prince Symon?"

Elsa had to think back on her week trying to pinpoint a face to go with the name. She'd met with Adrek Monday evening but hadn't seen much of the Asham king since. She presumed he had meetings of his own, but the queen had never gotten the chance to meet the youngest Asham prince.

"I don't think I have yet. Why? Have you?"

"I met him Wednesday. He's a really sweet guy but extremely shy. You'd think he doesn't get out much."

"He doesn't," Elsa said remembering the conversation she'd had with Adrek at dinner. "King Adrek said he doesn't travel much, so I assume Prince Symon doesn't go many places."

"Poor guy. Well, he's supposed to be here tonight, so I'll introduce the two of you."

Elsa smiled and excused herself when she caught sight of Kai lingering by the door. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes, Majesty."

Elsa nod and flicked her hand out towards the currently empty room. Ice leapt from her fingers and crept along the walls and across the ceiling, creating intricate patterns that flashed and winked in the evening sunlight streaming in through the large windows. The chandelier, which was modest by most standards, suddenly doubled in size as the queen's ice transformed it into a hanging piece of art that captured and refracted the light a hundred times over.

"Then show them in."

* * *

><p>Revel paused one hallway away from the ballroom in order to make sure his suit was immaculate, straightening his cuffs for the third time and making certain his sash was tied properly. He wasn't a vain man, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he wanted to make sure he looked his best tonight. Mingling with visiting nobility and aristocracy was always a daunting task, especially if Duke Wellmore's daughter was in attendance, which he desperately hoped she wasn't, but tonight he was to dance with the queen in front of hundreds of new and important face. The last thing he wanted was to shed a poor light on her.<p>

Deciding he was as prim as he was ever going to be, Revel squared his shoulders, swallowing a lump of nerves, and stepped into the steady flow headed towards the ballroom. He passed a few squads of his men, nodding to each guard in turn as he passed. This week had proven to be a challenging one. With so many visitors descending upon Arendelle, the task of policing citizens and travelers had become a monumental effort. Most of the Captain's men had to work in twelve hour shifts, himself included, patrolling the streets and keeping watch on the sensitive areas such as inns, pubs, and alleyways. More than a few times his men had responded to bar fights, hauling drunken, screaming men away and letting them cool their heads in the central tower cells. Nothing more major than that, thank God, but Revel could tell his guards were worn ragged. Once the rest of the visitors departed he was going to make sure each man received at least a full day off in rotation.

As he passed a particularly tight cluster of nobles, none of which he recognized, Revel felt a sudden, fierce prickling on the back of his neck and froze, instantly aware something wasn't right. Wading over to the wall in order to remove himself from the current of moving bodies, the Captain scanned the crowd for something, anything, that might explain the unnerving feeling of unease. It was like sensing something on the cusp of awareness, a ripple in the fabric of rightness that set his teeth on edge. The feeling was akin to walking down a dark alley knowing something was waiting for you within the shadows but being unable to tell when it was going to pounce; predator stalking prey. A few nobles gave him questioning looks as they past but none of them seemed out of place. Then again that was the beauty of a stalking predator. You couldn't always see them but they could most definitely see you. It wasn't just nerves, Revel knew. Being a guard for more than a decade and living on the streets before that had instilled in the Captain a heightened sense of awareness regarding his surroundings. He knew something was amiss, could feel it in his marrow, but without anything to go on aside from a feeling he was forced to rejoin the crowd and head into the ballroom.

"Sigmund," Revel called spotting the big guard standing near the secondary doors and waving him over.

"Evening, Captain. You're looking dapper as always," the big guard said with a lopsided smile, the dark circles under his eyes an indication of his exhaustion. Revel almost winced when he saw them.

"Thank you. Have there been any disturbances near or around the castle?"

Sigmund was quiet for a moment, eyes trained on the floor as he thought. "None that I can recall."

"No unusual noises or shady people skulking around the palace grounds?"

"No, sir. What's this about? Is something wrong?" Sigmund asked, suddenly alert. Tried though he may be, the big guard could easily push his exhaustion aside in the face of a potential crisis. It was a quality that Revel greatly admired in his lieutenant and remained one of the reasons Sigmund had risen through the ranks so quickly.

"Not that I can tell, I just….have a feeling."

This coming from any other guard would have put a patronizing smile to Sigmund's face as he sent the man away with a pat on the head. Feelings were hardly ever supported over cold hard facts. Guards weren't trained to go off feelings, they were trained to react, to identify a potential threat before it was revealed by careful analysis. Angry mobs went off gut feelings, professional guards looked at the facts and weighed them accordingly. Revel, however, was a different matter. His gut instincts were usually spot on in most cases. He was famous for having his uneasy feelings turn out to be serious potential threats, and this had gained him an unspoken, respected reputation for having a near sixth sense. So for Revel to have that same set of feelings here and now, Sigmund sat up and took notice.

"I'll call in more guards to police the doorways and balconies."

"No, that won't be necessary. If there is something wrong, we don't want to tip the person off. I'll circle the room a few times and see what I can find. Just keep your eyes open and on the queen."

"Always, sir." Sigmund saluted as Revel moved off and did a quick lap of the ballroom. He scanned the balconies, the drapes, the doorways, looking for a phantom but finding none. Nothing was out of place. As he pressed further into the room the prickling feeling abated like a tide ebbing away, still present at the base of his skull but not nearly as demanding. A quick glance at Sigmund confirmed that the big guard hadn't noticed anything either, so with nothing to go on, Revel turned away from his searching and headed for the dais. As he stepped around a cluster of chatting nobles waiting for the maestro to strike up the first tune of the evening, he caught a glimpse of Elsa standing next to Anna and stutter stepped, his mouth falling open in shocked wonder.

He saw her first and the dress second, the combination of both coming together in his mind like a powder keg explosion. She was the winter sun's radiance made flesh, ice and fire combined to form an entirely new, entirely knee weakening element that very nearly robbed Revel of his senses. For half a heartbeat he just stared, unable to bring himself to move as he felt himself go suddenly weightless. Time seemed to suddenly jump forward without him noticing and he was standing before her, throat achingly dry. He opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a pathetic squeak of air.

"Good—um—good evening, Majesty," he managed after an uncomfortable few seconds and swooped into a tight bow, aware that not just the queen's eyes were one him.

"Good evening, Captain Revel. You're looking dashing this evening," Elsa said gracing him with a wide smile that was equivalent to watching the sun break through a fog bank. The Captain reveled in the warmth of her radiance, body suddenly vibrating with nervousness.

_I'm shaking like this is the first time I'm meeting her. What's wrong with me?_

"Thank you. You're…that is you—" he glanced to either side to see if anyone was near and lowered his voice, "you look radiant, Elsa. Absolutely stunning."

A line of pink stretched across the bridge of the queen's nose, and she fought to keep her face pleasantly neutral. Regardless, her eyes betrayed her inner happiness and relief. "Thank you."

Turning his attention to the rest of the royal family so as not to offend, he bowed to Anna and Kristoff in turn. "It's good to see you all this evening: Princess Anna, Barron Kristoff."

"Good to see you too, Revel," Kristoff said with a tight smile that was anything but cordial. "And it's good to see you decided to wear sensible shoes tonight."

Elsa snorted and almost spat out her champagne, hand darting to cover her mouth. Revel felt a flush coming on but wouldn't give the mountain man the satisfaction of embarrassing him in public, so he played along.

"Yes, well, with this outfit I thought translucent blue heels weren't all that appropriate. It would clash with my breeches and sash, but I'll be sure to think of a social event where those shoes might be appreciated more."

The queen was unable to suppress her laughter and turned her back on the crowd, shoulders shaking. "You looked amazing in those heels."

"I'm completely missing something here, aren't I?" Anna asked glancing between the three with a bewildered look.

"Your sister has a devious mind where revenge is concerned," Revel explained while shooting Kristoff a smug look.

_You'll have to do better than that, ice harvester._

"Well yeah, wasn't that obvious? She and I are cut from the same cloth," Anna confirmed with a dubious nod before cracking a grin. "So, she made you wear ice shoes?"

"I made him walk to the guard tower in them," Elsa said around giggles, her eyes twinkling like starlight in the kaleidoscope of color radiating from the chandelier.

Anna pursed her lips, eyebrows raised. "Impressive. I'm surprised you made it there without breaking an ankle."

"I have the added benefit of being very light on my feet," Revel chuckled as he accepted a crystal flute of champagne from a passing servant. As the conversation drifted away onto more mundane things, the Captain took the opportunity to scan the crowd again, opening his senses by taking a long, slow breath. The music had begun a few minutes ago, cutting into the chorus of conversation like a knife through silk. A few couples had begun dancing at the center of the ballroom, the twirl of their bodies caught in snippets between the press of standing guests. Revel still felt the unmistakable tingle of wrongness at the base of his skull but it was more annoyance now than urgency. His eyes found Sigmund still standing by the door, watching the crowd just as Revel was, keen eyes moving steadily from face to face.

"If you'll excuse me," he heard Elsa say from behind him, "I believe I need to play the part of dutiful hostess for a short time."

The Captain almost offered to join her, the words on the tip of his tongue, but thought better of it and remained tight lipped as he watched her wade into the clusters of nobles. He was not her equal, and though having the Captain of the royal guard accompany her wouldn't be unheard of or remarkable in any way, Revel didn't want to give anyone any ideas. So he remained behind, watching her like a hawk, while Anna and Kristoff chatted amiably beside him.

"You look tense, Captain," the princess said coming to stand next to him a few minutes later.

Revel turned and offered her a thin smile. He noticed Kristoff had moved off, probably to get his wife some refreshments. "It has been a very long week," he said lamely.

"I can imagine, but that's not what's bothering you, is it?" Anna pressed gently. "I've seen that same concentrated look on your face before. It's the look you gave Malkof the day Elsa was attacked in the square. You sensed something about him then, and you're sensing something now."

For a moment, Revel was taken aback by Anna's assessment. Of course she had hit the proverbial nail on the head, but it was her ability to read him that shocked him the most. Sometimes he forgot just how perceptive the princess was beneath her outer shell of good natured goofiness. Then again, she had been his student for nearly three years and had learned how to gauge her instructor. He'd taught her enough about being aware of her surroundings that she recognized his immediate unease.

"You're right," he admitted after a moment, "I do sense something, but I can't tell what it is."

"When did it start?"

"While I was walking into the ballroom. I felt…" it was hard putting exactly what he'd felt into proper words, and he struggled for a moment. "I felt wrong, like there was something I should notice but just couldn't see. There was just a wrongness to the air."

"Do you feel it now?" Anna asked scanning the crowd for her sister and finding her laughing in a small cluster of French nobles. The sight of the queen laughing so openly made the princess smile. Elsa had come a long way in three years, and Anna couldn't be more proud of her.

"It comes in waves. I still feel uneasy but it's not as prominent as when I entered. The worst part is that I can't tell who it's targeted towards. It might be you or it might be your sister, so I've told Sigmund to keep a sharp eye from where he's stationed while I watch from my point of view."

"You know," Anna ventured, turning so that she faced away from the ballroom and face Revel directly, "the best way to make sure nothing happens to my sister is to be by her side."

Revel felt his face flush and looked away, scanning the crowd again as an excuse not to look at Anna. As if fate were pranking him, the second he looked out over the ballroom the press of bodies separated and he caught Elsa watching him, her gaze searing a line of living fire across the room to him. He felt the gravity of her gaze, felt his stomach flip at the same moment his heart leapt into his throat. When she eventually turned away to address the man she'd been speaking to, the vacuum her absence created was enough to make Revel dizzy.

"I can't be that man," he whispered. Whether he'd meant Anna to hear him or not was irrelevant because she had.

"Yes, you can."

"No, I can't. It's— I'm not— Anna," Revel fought to get his mind and tongue to cooperate with one another. "It won't happen."

"Is it because you can't let it or won't let it?" the princess inquired lightly, though the gravity of her words was enough to pull the Captain through the floor and into the bowls of the earth. Why was she asking him this now? Why was this even a conversation they were having in the open? Didn't she realize there were ears everywhere and all it would take to destroy everything Elsa had carefully built over the years was for a scandal to emerge within the royal family? No, he wouldn't be the linchpin that would bring his queen to her knees. He wouldn't be her downfall.

"Anna, you don't understand. It isn't in my control to get that I want. I can't put your sister in danger. I can't be her prin—" he stammered to a halt when Kristoff reappeared carrying a small try of food and a glass of watered down wine. The mountain man regarded him carefully as if realizing he'd walked into something, but Revel didn't give him the chance to start asking questions. "With respect, Highness, I can't do as you ask. Please, excuse me," Revel bowed and stepped down off the dais, heading towards Sigmund with a desperate need to distance himself from the royal couple.

"Have you found anything?" Revel asked a little too hastily. The big guard gave him a questioning look but shook his head.

"Nothing, sir. I took the liberty of bringing in two more guards from the hall to police the balcony, and they've reported nothing. Are…are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Revel snapped and immediately regretted his tone of voice. He took a calming breath and silently counted to five, forcing his pulse to slow. "Forgive me. This feeling just has me on edge. If you see anything, _anything_, please come and get me."

"Of course, Captain. You'll be the first—" Sigmund suddenly went stiff, his eyes staring at something over Revel's shoulder as he saluted sharply. "Good evening, Majesty."

Revel felt his shoulder blades tingling and turned towards Elsa. She stood a few feet away, close enough that if he wanted to he could reach out and touch her, but he did no such thing, his arms rigid at his sides.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Sigmund," Elsa smiled politely and nodded. Her eyes locked with Revel's and he felt his stomach flip again. "Captain, would you please walk with me?"

"Of course, Majesty," Revel replied and quickly fell into step next to her. They walked slowly around the perimeter of the ballroom, striding quietly in thin silence. He hadn't realized it before, but the moment he was in her presence his mind cleared, the hazy fog that had been dogging him since the feeling of unease had followed him into the ballroom finally lifting.

"Ask me to dance," Elsa whispered out of the corner of her mouth as they passed a group of dancers.

"Pardon?"

"Ask me to dance," Elsa repeated in the same hushed whisper. "If I have to be the dutiful hostess for one more minute, I think I might ice something."

For the first time that evening, Revel felt the ghost of a genuine smile touch his lips. This was the reason he'd come to this ball, wasn't it; to dance with his lover and be close to her? He stepped deftly to one side and ducked into a perfectly smooth bow, left hand behind his back and right pressed against his chest. "Queen Elsa, would you allow me the pleasure of a dance?"

The queen played her part well, offering her hand and allowing him to lead her into the center of the ballroom. They came together with the graceful smoothness of a couple used to being in one another presence, their bodies flowing into the necessary start position. Unlike their first encounter at the Yule Ball, there was no competition, no playful rivalry between the two, just comfortable closeness. The orchestra struck up a beautiful ballad played heavily on string and woodwind instruments, the song lilting over the ballroom like a spring breeze. Revel took the lead, hand around Elsa's waist and right hand gently cupping hers. They moved in time with the rest of the dancers, bodies naturally following the ebb and flow of the song.

"You look stunning," Revel said quietly, unable to keep the smile from his face.

"You said that already," Elsa replied with a teasing look.

"I did, didn't I? Well, I thought you needed to hear it again."

The queen nodded, careful to keep her face pleasantly neutral but unable to hide her true emotion shining through her eyes. She'd been looking forward to this moment all evening; hell all week for that matter. Being away from her lover yet being so close at the same time was a cruel kind of torture. More than once, she'd caught fleeting glimpses of him but never a long enough look to sate her hunger. And the stunt he'd pulled in the hallway that morning hadn't helped matters either. So until they could be together tonight in the privacy of her room, tangled in each other arms, this was the next best thing.

As they twirled and swayed, connecting and disconnecting, Elsa caught a glimmer of something on his cuff and focused her wandering thoughts onto the ornate snowflake cufflinks pining Revel's cuffs together. "Where did you…"

"I had them made this week," he answered quietly. "There was a traveling silver smith staying at one of the inns who had half of his raw silver stolen the day after he'd arrived. I tracked down the thief and got his merchandise back. He was grateful enough having his silver returned that he offered to make me a pair of cufflinks. I chose a snowflake…for you."

Elsa felt a ball of warmth bloom in her stomach that surged through her body like wildfire through dry brush. It was a token, an outward showing of his affection, like a knight of old tying a Lady's handkerchief to his lance before ridding into battle. It was utterly cliché, but she couldn't keep the smile from her face or the heat from her cheeks.

"I…thank you."

Revel nodded and spun her in time with the other dancers, watching how her dress swirled around her, how the diamond-like ice around the edges of her gown winked and flashed in the light, how her hair fell and framed her face like a platinum halo. She was beauty and elegance, grace and poise, and he'd never felt this way towards anyone. No, he couldn't have her, not fully, but here in this moment, as they danced close enough to one another that he could smell her perfume mingling with the scent of mountain frost, he was content. Her closeness was all that mattered. The ballroom, the dancers, the nobles circling them, everything fell away as he stared down at the woman he loved. She looked back at him, regal mask in place, but the warmth in her eyes couldn't be hidden, the spark they shared unable to be snuffed.

_Let them see,_ Revel thought with a surge of bravery. _For this fleeting moment, let them feel this heat._

As if Elsa could read his mind, she stepped closer to him, their bodies mere inches apart. It was a perfect moment; a point in time that they could both look back on and smile, but where there is sunlight there is often shadow. Revel felt the tingling unease at the base of his skull explode into a painful buzzing, his heightened awareness screaming for him to look up and pay attention to the world around him. He would later wish he'd never moved his eyes away from Elsa's face, never looked over her shoulder. He saw them coming, a squad of guards five thick, with Sigmund and two Arendelle guards in tow, pushing through the press of nobles and heading straight for him.

Elsa saw the happiness slip from her lover's face like an anvil dropping out of the sky, the blood draining from his cheeks. She followed his line of sight and glanced over her shoulder, stunned to see eight armored men approaching, three of them hers. Revel's grip on her hand tightened, his entire body tensing at the recognition of the foreign guards' kingdom colors. Confused, Elsa turned back to him and saw raw fear burning in his striking green eyes, fear and panic. Yet behind it there was something else, something deeper. Seconds before the world descended into madness, Elsa understood the message Revel's eyes were trying to tell her.

_I love you, and I'm sorry._

The moment understanding lit like a spark on her face, Revel shoved her backwards with enough force to send her reeling into the arms of Sigmund and the two Arendelle guards. Half a heartbeat later, the Captain was tackled by five men who attempted to pull him to the floor, but he wasn't about to be brought to heel so easily. Revel twisted and thrashed, throwing elbows and punches and giving the guards attempting to hold him a reason to think twice. One guard staggered away with blood gushing down his face from a broken nose while another fell screaming, arm broken at the elbow like a tree limb, before Revel finally went to his knees. Within the chaos of limbs and shouted commands, Elsa heard a sword being pulled from its sheath and her chaotic mind stopped whirling, instinct immediately taking control.

"Enough!" A blast of arctic magic erupted from her, throwing Sigmund and half the guards subduing Revel back, their feet finding no purchase on the ice spreading out along the ballroom floor. The man holding the sword yelped in surprise and dropped his weapon, the steel shattering into thousands of glittering shards as it hit the marble. The ballroom was plunged into an intense, palpable silence, every eye trained on the drama unfolding at its center.

Stepping forward, will-ice climbing her arms like ivy, Elsa raised her left palm in warning to the rest of the scrambling men, eyes glowing with barely contained rage. "I. Said. Enough."

"Majesty, I—"

The queen's head swiveled around and a red faced Sigmund seemed to forget what he was about to say, or thought better of it. Her eyes moved over to the men crouching nervously over a still struggling Revel. Now that her mind had caught up with the situation, she recognized their kingdom colors and signet, and recognized the man who'd drawn his sword as Fritz, the Asham king's personal bodyguard. The coldness in his eyes, the depth of the glare he stared her down with, was enough to make her blood boil.

"Who gave you permission to touch one of my subjects?" she demanded, voice flat and cold and brooking no argument.

"Forgive me, Queen Elsa, but I gave the order."

Elsa turned as King Adrek swept into the center of the room, face grim. Before she had the chance to remind him that this was not his kingdom and he had no right harassing any of her personal staff, Adrek fixed his gaze on Revel. The Arendelle Captain momentarily ceased his struggling to glare up at the man looming above him with barely contained hate burning in his green eyes.

"Prince Revel Handler Spezerei, you are under arrest for the murder of our father, Gregor Handler Spezerei, the late king of Asham."

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><p><strong>AN:** Nothing more to say *steeples fingers and waits while grinning*


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** Well here we go my lovelies, we've hit the top of the proverbial roller coaster and now we're screaming down the first of many drops and loops! Things are going to really start heating up now, and I'm excited to finally be writing the precursor to the climax. Really, this has been an awesome ride made all the better by you awesome people. I will, however, issue a small warning. Things are going to get dark from this point on, so I apologize in advance for the use of gore and graphic language. Not so much in this chapter but in coming ones. Anyway, enjoy the read and please check out my other Authors Note at the end of the chapter! Happy reading!

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><p>Anna would always remember the events of the April Summit ball. It would forever be branded in her mind, a milestone that stood out amongst the rest of her memories. For better or worse, it would always be there, and she would spend countless hours dissecting that moment in time and examining the pieces. The ball began normally as most balls usually did, nobles dancing and laughing together, champagne glasses tinkling in small toasts, and just an overall feeling of warmth and contentment. The evening was unseasonably warm, the air sticky with humidity that didn't abate even after the sun had set, but no one seemed to mind. From her seat on the dais, because dancing was out of the question with her ankles as swollen as they were, Anna watched Elsa mingle after excusing herself from her conversation with Revel. It was hard to spot because the queen was a master of putting on emotional masks, but the princess was able to tell even at a distance that her sister was truly happy for the first time in years. She was openly smiling and laughing and joking with strangers like it was second nature, like three years ago she'd not almost destroyed her kingdom. Elsa had found a measure of peace and also love in the strangest place, in perhaps the strangest, most unassuming man, and that made Anna smile all the more. Elsa was in love, and so Anna's world was complete.<p>

As the evening wore on, the princess rose from her seat periodically and relaxed into casual conversation with Kristoff and Prince Symon who had arrived an hour late. The Asham prince, dressed in black and gold courtly finery, was a shy man around Anna's own age, shy but incredibly knowledgeable and very easy to talk to once he let his guard down. He and Anna had started a dialogue earlier in the week, and the moment Symon had walked into the ballroom, clearly searching for someone, the princess had sent Kai to fetch him. After the usual introductions, conversation began.

"I'm actually not all that well versed in the art of ice harvesting," Symon said with a small shrug. "I know that there needs to be a right temperature and depth to the ice in order to harvest it, but aside from that I'm terribly uninformed."

"It's good that you called it an art," Kristoff grinned. "Most people think we harvesters just spend a majority of our time lugging heavy ice bricks around, but there really is an art to getting the perfect cut. We start checking the ice when it reached a foot thick," Kristoff explained, his eyes gleaming with that special glint he got whenever talking about his previous career. "You first have to drill a hole and check the depth. If it's less than a foot you leave that patch alone, but if it's more than a foot you can start harvesting. The group I used to work for would only harvest two feet thick or more. It was easier for the horses and less stressful on us. The thicker the ice the surer the footing. Anyway, we would mark the lines with a simple level to be sure everything we cut was symmetrical then start sawing."

"You use a saw?" Symon asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "Like a tree saw or something different?"

_This is insane,_ Anna thought watching the two with a small smile. _He looks just like Revel, it's uncanny._

"Ice saws are different from wood saws. The teeth of an ice saw are bigger so it has more bite. Also, the tip is stronger and narrower, allowing the harvester to punch through the ice. As far as I know, you can't do that with a wood saw against a tree."

Symon chuckled and handed his empty champagne glass over to a waiting servant. "No, you most certainly can't. You mentioned horses?"

"We used a team of horses to drag a blade along the cut lines before starting."

"That really is fascinating. I never stopped to wonder where our ice came from or how it was harvested, but that's truly amazing. I'd love to visit the harvest fields sometime."

"If you ever visit again, I'd be more than happy to show you around," Kristoff beamed.

"Is it true you have a reindeer for a pet?" Symon asked with a sheepish smile.

Anna, content on letting the two converse, turned her attention onto the crowd. She caught the glint of red fabric on the dance floor and saw Elsa spin in time with the music, Revel's fingers interlaced with her left hand. A giddy warmth bloomed in the princess's chest. They really did look happy together. Anna had never seen her sister so open with anyone before save herself. Her romance with Revel had brought her out of her shell in ways she'd never expected. She was so focused on watching her sister spin and dip, regal mask in place but the fire in her eyes almost tangible, that she didn't see the commotion at the ballroom entrance until Symon's comment pulled her attention away.

"Why is Fritz here?"

It wasn't the comment itself that caught her attention, it was the way Symon had said it. There was genuine curiosity laced in his question, but it carried an undertone of unease and — something else, something like dark disapproval — that made the princess turn. She saw a cluster of guards forming at the door and sharpened her focus. Sigmund, Revel's lieutenant, was speaking to the Asham king's attendant, his face slack with what could only be described as shocked surprise.

_Why does he look surprised?_

Anna remembered Revel explaining his feeling of unease and immediately felt a ball of fear twist in her stomach. What was happening? Clearly it had something to do with the queen, because the guards, three from Arendelle and five from Asham, set out from the door and headed straight towards her. By now the small disturbance had spread throughout the crowd like ripples in a pond. Nobles turned and stumbled out of the way, opening a wide path for the cluster of men to follow. Anna watched with banking dread as they approached her sister and fanned out. The impossible was happening but her mind was slow to realize it until Symon spoke up and broke the fragile spell of calm.

"Is— oh, dear God— no, it can't be. Is that my _brother_?"

The pieces flew together in the princess's mind with such force she actually staggered and had to be caught by Kristoff. All the sighs, all the little inconsistencies in his stories and mannerisms, they all made painfully clear sense now. He didn't act like a commoner or even a form of higher nobility. Revel had always been a little too polished for his position, his etiquette a little too refined. Anna had noticed it during their training sessions but chalked it up to just a personality quirk. He wanted to stand out, so he'd made an effort to sound, act, and be a little more refined than his peers. But that wasn't the case anymore, and Anna knew it. Revel wasn't just an overly polite commoner, wasn't even a polished noble, he was _royalty_.

_No, it can't be true!_ _Revel is just a commoner, just a guard captain…just a, just a…_

And all at once it didn't matter because the next thought that exploded in Anna's mind was, _he's a prince, which means he can be with my sister_.

That revelation alone, coupled with the electricity it created that spread through the princess's body, would have been enough to light the entire kingdom should the sun ever burn out. Revel and Elsa could be together for real now, they could actually court, they could…

The happy swell of possibilities came crashing down as the squad of Asham guards suddenly tackled the captain. Prince Symon, previously frozen in place, practically dove off the dais like a hawk chasing a rabbit, pushing and shoving people out of his way as he tried to get to the commotion now taking place in the center of the ballroom. Anna scrambled after him, her heart hammering so loudly in her ears she didn't hear Kristoff's shouts of concern. She did feel his hand enclose around her wrist and was surprised when he didn't try to pull her back. Instead, Kristoff was using his massive bulk to shove nobles aside as easily as if they were tree branches.

"Enough!"

Anna heard her sister shout and suddenly the ballroom fell deathly quiet. Everyone in attendance felt the temperature dip dramatically; a few nobles and onlookers flinched back or outright retreated from the creeping fingers of ice snaking across the marble. Kristoff looped his arms around his wife's shoulders in an effort to keep her from stumbling on the now frictionless floor. Around them, people were succumbing to the ice, their arms entangling or pinwheeling in an effort to stay standing, and under it all like an invisible current was a hum of fear. The queen had revealed her powers like this once before in a similar fashion; they all had heard the stories or been present when Elsa locked Arendelle under nearly twenty feet of ice and snow. So it was safe to say that many were deeply concerned when the temperature continued to plummet and the ice didn't abate. Someone yelped in surprised pain and a second later the sound of something shattering rent the air.

"I. Said. Enough." Elsa's words cut through the tense silence like a knife, her voice as sharp and lethal as a honed blade.

Anna stumbled to a halt, her heart skipping a beat. She would always remember the distinctive sound a sword made when shattering to pieces. It was the last thing she'd heard on the fjord before the ice snuffed out her life like a candle at the mercy of the wind. Her scream and Hans's sword shattering: those two things would haunt her for the rest of her natural life, would invade her dreams and plague her with vivid nightmares what could sometimes rival her sister's. Kristoff heard the shatter too and felt his wife stiffen. There was a brief pause, a moment of nervous hesitation, before Anna started earnestly pushing people out of her way. It took a little effort, the ice and her treadles slippers slowing her down tremendously, but eventually she was able to slide her way through the press of petrified and curious onlookers. She stood at the edge of the ring of people, her wide eyes taking in the catastrophe unfolding like a penny opera drama. Revel was on the ground struggling against four guards trying to subdue him. The fifth Asham guard wasn't a guard at all. Fritz stood like a sentinel between Elsa and Revel, his eyes setting fire to the distance between him and the Arendelle queen. Anna saw darkness in the man's cold stare, saw such an all-consuming malice in his hazel eyes it very nearly knocked the breath from her. Why he was glaring at Elsa with such open hostility only he knew, but Revel seemed to feel it as well because he fought all the harder when Elsa demanded to know under whose authority Fritz had acted upon.

"Forgive me, Queen Elsa, but I gave the order."

King Adrek swept into the center of the crowd ring with a grim kind of grace, his movements fluid despite the icy floor. His handsome face was grim as well as he turned towards Revel without any preamble. Anna wanted to scream for him to stop, to think about what he was doing. This was Revel, _her Revel_. He'd been her teacher and friend for three years, and was now her sister's lover and her only chance at happiness. Whatever he'd done to the Asham king, surely it could be forgiven. Surely it was all a mistake.

"Prince Revel Handler Spezerei, you are under arrest for the murder of our father, Gregor Handler Spezerei, the late king of Asham."

And the earth fell out from under Anna's feet at the same time it did her sister's. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd like a shockwave, and the world tilted on its axis. Unlike Elsa, Anna had Kristoff to fall back against as the force of the accusation hit her like a cannon ball to the chest. The queen, however, stood alone at the center of the maelstrom that had now become her life. She stood still as a statue, the ice climbing her arms and spreading out under her feet providing only a sliver of a glimpse of the turmoil taking place inside her.

"Take him to my ship and put him in—"

"No." The word slipped from Elsa's lips and fell like a rock into a placid pond, her voice quiet but heard by all. Anna could see her sister rising above the blanket of shock, her queenly mask sliding into place. Though the mask she wore hid her thoughts, Anna could practically hear her sister reciting the mantra that had been part of her for more than half her life.

_Conceal, don't feel. Don't let it show._

"I'm sorry, Queen Elsa, but this is an Asham matter now. This traitor will be locked in my brig until I set sail for Asham."

"You overstretch and forget yourself, King Adrek," Elsa warned with such frigid evenness even Anna felt the verbal slap. "Regardless of who this man is, he is a sworn member of my royal guard and therefore falls under my supervision. He will be held in my personal dungeon until the time of his trial."

Anger darkened Adrek's face, lightning flashing in his eyes. "He is my brother. He will find justice in my kingdom."

_My sister was finally happy!_ Anna wanted to scream but her tongue was just as numb and useless as her lips._ What right do you have to take that from her?! Don't you know what's she's been through!?_

"This matter is not up for discussion. Lieutenant Sigmund," Elsa snapped her head around, and the big guard saluted with a nervous quiver. "Take Captain Revel to the dungeon and place a two man guard by the door. No one is to enter or leave without my spoken consent."

"Yes, Majesty," Sigmund saluted again and attempted to shuffle across the floor towards the four guards holding Revel. Elsa realized with a flush of embarrassment that her ice had escaped her notice and immediately dispersed it with a tiny flex of her fingers. Their feet finding traction again, the Arendelle guards attempted to take Revel from the Asham guards, but Fritz blocked their way.

"Master Fritz," Elsa warned, her eyes starting to lighten as her power boiled over the flames of her anger, "stand aside or be arrested as well."

For a tense moment the two stood glaring at one another, angry sparks flying like embers leaping from a smith's anvil. The tension was palpable, hanging suspended in the air like summer humidity. The crowd of onlookers held a collective breath as they waited in rapped silence. Fritz begrudgingly broke eye contact first and glanced over at his king. Adrek, face dark with indignant rage, flared his nostrils and took a breath, wide chest expanding like a cobra's hood. Not to be intimidated, Elsa stared him down, will-ice still clinging to her arms, a not so subtle threat that should this visiting monarch think himself above her laws he'd quickly find himself in a less than pleasant situation.

"This matter is not finished," Adrek finally managed, his words raspy and dripping with venom. "We will speak of this."

"Yes, we shall," Elsa replied with a sharp nod. "Take him away."

Sigmund and his men did as they were told and pulled Revel to his feet. One guard to each arm and Sigmund holding the captain by the back of the neck, the unhappy group left quietly and without incident. Adrek whirled away, stalking angrily from the ballroom with his guards and Fritz in tow. Only once did the king's right hand man glance back at the royal party, and it took only a glance for them to see the dark rage rolling inside him.

"Kai, inform the guests that the ball is over and that they are to leave the castle premises immediately. Also, prepare the parlor and bring me the royal guard's ledger and census forms," Elsa instructed as the manservant jogged to her side, concern etched into every inch of his body. He bowed tightly without a word and hurried off leaving the queen alone in the middle of the room as the guests closest to her turned and quickly walked away. It took only moments for the ballroom to empty save for the royal party and…Prince Symon. Elsa started when she saw him, her eyes playing tricks. He really did look a lot like Revel. In fact, now that she thought about it, all three siblings looked alike. It was a wonder she'd not made the connection until now.

"Prince Symon, I believe your brother is heading towards his ship. You should do the same. I imagine we'll be in discussions most of the evening." She was playing the role of stoic ruler well, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up her façade. Already the weight of today's revelation was starting to create cracks in her otherwise flawless demeanor.

"I…I…" Symon looked like a dear who'd been running from a bear only to come face to face with a wolf. He was frozen, clearly unsure as to what to say, do, or think. Suddenly, Elsa's heart went out to him despite the fact that hers was currently breaking. She may have formed a bond with Revel and become his lover, but this was his flesh and blood brother. Symon hadn't seen Revel in fifteen years. The pain he must be feeling, the acidic mix of relief, anger, and betrayal warring within him, must have outmatched hers a hundred fold.

Hesitantly, Symon approach the queen, his eyes searching and finding Anna as she came to stand next to her sister, just as thunderstruck as the rest of them. "Queen Elsa, I…this is…I don't even know where…" before she could blink, the Asham prince was on his knees in front of her, head bowed to his chest and hands pressed flat on the cold marble floor. "I know I have no right to ask you anything. This is your kingdom, and I am but a visitor, but please, _please_ spare my brother's life. If he is extradited to Asham, Adrek will have him executed for treason. If he remains here, he can at least live out the rest of his life behind bars."

"I imagine his punishment will mirror his crime. The law is the law, Prince Symon," Elsa said and immediately hated herself. This was Revel she was talking about, not some common criminal! Why was she suddenly being so cold?

"Please I…I lost him once before. I was only a child, barely able to run after him, but losing him broke my heart. I can't live with that pain again."

Elsa felt tears welling in her eyes and fought tooth and nail to keep them from falling. Taking a few steadying breaths, she kneeled in front of Symon and gently lifted his chin until his eyes— _Sweet God, they look just like Revel's_— were level with hers. "You love him, don't you?"

"He's my older brother," Symon hiccupped, unbidden tears trailing down his face. "Of course I love him. I know he's committed a heinous crime, but fifteen years has lessened the pain of my father's death and taught me forgiveness."

"I take it your brother Adrek does not feel the same," she remarked with a quivering twist of dread.

"Adrek is…he is a fair man and a good king but…my father's death greatly changed him and the council he holds is poisonous." Elsa didn't need to know that Symon was talking about Fritz. "Justice must be served," Symon continued, "but blood atop blood is no victory. What can we hope to gain from killing someone in the name of vengeance?"

"You are wise beyond your years, Prince Symon," Elsa said, swallowing hard and forcing a small smile. She could feel her mask starting to slip, the knot in her throat growing by the second.

Symon choked out a broken laugh. "I've been told that before. Thank you, Queen Elsa. I'm sorry," he suddenly said, climbing to his feet and helping the queen rise as well, "I must look rather pitiful. Forgive me, I will return to my brother's ship."

"Remain in the castle, if you like. I imagine your brother will want you in on the proceedings."

"I can't imagine why he would," Symon replied with a slightly bitter note to his voice.

"Regardless, you will be needed," Elsa said with flat finality. "If you will excuse me, I need to retrieve important documents. Kai will fetch you and your brother shortly."

"Of course." Symon bowed and left the ballroom.

"Elsa," Anna said in a tiny voice, hands clasped against her chest and face slack with despair. She didn't know what to say. Was there really anything that could be done to rectify the situation save for rewriting the past? Were there words she could say to take the pain away? Should she hold her sister, or give her space, or cry with her? "Oh Elsa I'm so—"

"It is what it is," the queen interrupted a little too hurriedly, her tone a bit too sharp. She turned quickly away from Anna and the princess felt the proverbial door slam in her face again. Elsa was retreating into herself. She was concealing, and that hurt Anna deeper than any slap. "Excuse me, but I have to change and prepare for this meeting."

"Elsa, please don't do this," Anna said attempting to chase after her. "Don't lock this away. We're here for you," she indicated herself and Kristoff with a wave. "Please, you don't have to carry this burden alone."

Elsa paused half way to the wood with her back to her sister. Her arms snaking around her waist in a vain attempt to comfort herself, she felt the muscles in her back and abdomen seize as she fought to keep the sobs building in her chest from escaping. The telltale burn of tears stung her eyes, and she clenched her jaw tightly to keep from hiccupping as she took breath after ragged breath. She didn't have time for comfort or tears. Right now a man's life lay in her hands, her lover's life, a man she thought she knew but clearly didn't. Revel's future wavered on a knife's edge, and she didn't have to be told that the meeting she was about to have with King Adrek was pivotal in determining whether he was headed for the executioners block or not. Just that thought alone made her nauseous to the point she felt bile force its way into the back of her throat.

"Yes, I do," Elsa affirmed, fractionally turning towards her sister after wrestling her grief into temporary submission. "I am queen. This is my solemn burden to bear, and I will bear it alone."

"No, you don't!" Anna shouted at her sister's retreating form. "You're not alone in this! Elsa, please wait!"

"Anna, stop," Kristoff said, catching her arm and gently pulling her back. "Let her go."

"Why?!" she demanded rounding on him. "So she can run off to her room and hide from me because I'm asking her to do the insanely difficult thing of letting me help? Why can't she see that I'm just trying to be there for her? I want to make this right, I want to—"

She was cut off mid-sentence when her husband pulled her close, wrapping her in a firm hug. At first she stiffened and contemplated pushing him away. The last thing she wanted was comfort when her sister was probably feeling ten times more pain than she was. Still, it didn't come as a surprise when tears rolled down her cheek and a choke sob broke free from her throat. Suddenly, all she could do was cling to Kristoff, fingers curling into the fabric of his jacket.

"I know, love. I know," he soothed, warm hand gently stroking the back of her head.

"Why is this happening?" Anna hiccupped, burying her face into his shoulder. "Why now…sh-she was so happy."

"This isn't the end," Kristoff said, stepping back and cupping her face. "I can't accept that this is the end. Your sister deserves a happy ending."

"How is that remotely possible now?"

"I don't know, but we'll find a way. I promise."

Anna nodded meekly and leaned on her husband as they left the ballroom. She had no idea what she could possibly do to make this chaotic situation better, but damn it she wasn't going to let her sister's one chance of happiness slip away. Come hell or high water she was bound and determined to find a solution.

* * *

><p>It was well past midnight, but Elsa was anything but tired, her body still jittery from the shock working through her system. Her mind tumbled over the meeting that had just adjourned. The session with Adrek had gone as expected. The Asham king had demanded his brother released into his custody under the laws of extradition. He'd bellowed and blustered and fervently explained his case in an attempt to get Elsa to hand Revel over, but the queen was not someone who could be bullied or manipulated into anything, especially when it came to the rights of her citizens. And by all accounts, Revel was a citizen of Arendelle. He'd been part of the census for fifteen years, paid his taxes, and held a steady and respectable job. The assumed identity he lived under was the only crime he'd committed, and though it was a serious offence, especially since he'd risen to the rank of captain of the royal guard, it didn't warrant an execution. Elsa also reminded Adrek that Arendelle had no extradition laws. Once a person was established as a lawful citizen they remained so for life unless banished or excommunicated. Needless to say, Adrek was furious and the arguments volleyed between the two opposing monarchs lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. It had been the Asham king who called an end to their meeting, declaring that they would continue in the morning and that Elsa would supply proof of her laws since she'd already shown him proof that Revel was a citizen of Arendelle.<p>

The queen waited a full thirty minutes after his departure before leaving the parlor. In those thirty minutes she paced the length of the room near a hundred time attempting to digest everything Adrek had told her. According to the king, Revel had stabbed his father to death over an argument about lines of succession. It had been a crime of passion fueled by drink and hot tempers. Apparently, the late Asham king was known for having a short fuse that was made even shorter when wine was involved. Fritz was the one who discovered him standing over the body, blood literally on his hands, and had attempted to apprehend him. Revel fought back and scarred the champion, because Elsa realized he was Adrek's muscle as much as his confidant, a scar that he bore to this day across his face. Elsa listened to the stories and accusations, listened to Adrek's reasoning for wanting Revel turned over to him, but she couldn't get Prince Symon's plea out of her head. The youngest Asham prince had not been in attendance, and his absence was marked by the queen. He'd begged her not to allow Adrek to take Revel back to Asham, but little did he know she had every intention of keeping him in Arendelle.

Elsa left the parlor and wandered the lower floors of the castle, frost echoing her footfalls and climbing the walls. She knew Adrek wasn't telling her everything. Being a ruler who'd acquired a reputation for being a master barterer, the queen had developed the ability of sensing whether or not someone was trying to sell her something far beyond its value. To put it plainly, she could sniff out bullshit, and Adrek smelled strongly of it. Trouble was she couldn't prove he was lying. At least not yet. Elsa had bought herself some time, but how far was she willing to push a fellow monarch who not only provided valuable trade but also had an impressive navy and a reason for starting a war. Hadn't the legend of Troy begun this way? She was so wrapped in her thoughts she didn't realize she'd descended into the lower levels of the castle until she was standing in front of the dungeon doors.

_Do I have the courage for this?_ Elsa thought, staring at the plain metal doors with trepidation pumping through her veins. A deep, cleansing breath pushed the fear away, the second steadied her, and the third banked her courage. She knew she didn't have a choice. If there was to be a trial, she needed to hear Revel's side of the story.

The stairwell beyond the doors was unexpectedly dark, lit only by a single lantern hanging adjacent to the door. The little light it provided was weak at best, throwing the narrow spiral staircase into deep pits of black shadow. Carefully, she descended one step at a time, hand trailing the cold stone wall for both balance and support. Two guards waited at the bottom and jumped to attention when she emerged from the staircase, arms swinging into a salute. With a silent nod from the queen, they pulled open the door revealing a tiny antechamber and another short staircase beyond that. Elsa descended in silence, her footfalls impossibly loud in the tight space, before reaching the final guard who wordlessly opened the second and final door. Elsa noticed that this particular door was well over a foot thick and studded with iron bolts. The hinges creaked noisily as the guard pulled at the heavy wood, grunting with the effort.

"How long will you be, Majesty?" the man asked with nervous formality. She knew why he was asking. It was protocol. She would give him a time limit that he would set with the different sized hourglasses sitting in a recess behind him before entering to see if she was alright. It was safer that way, but it also created a time constraint, and Elsa didn't know how long she'd be staying.

"I'll call for you once I'm finished," she replied dryly. The guard nodded and slowly shut the door behind her, the latch clicking in place with a rusty screech. Elsa held her breath as the world plunged into a brief darkness until her eyes adjusted to the gloom. She remembered with shocking clarity the hours she'd spent in a cell three years ago, remembered the claustrophobic feeling of high dark stone and iron bars. Her hands suddenly ached at the memory of those hellacious steel mitts and what they had been created for. They'd been designed to keep a prisoner from hurting themselves, but the purpose the mitts had been used for that bleak day was an attempt to smother her power and make her compliant. To make her vulnerable. Swallowing hard, Elsa edged further into the dungeon, back pressed firmly against the wall. She didn't want to be here, didn't want to see what she was about to see, but there were duties a queen had to perform that went far beyond what she wanted.

Rounding a sharp corner, Elsa emerged into the first set of chambers and their holding cells. Back painfully stuff and fingers tingling with sparking blue magic, she stared across the dark stoned room and into the iron cage where Revel sat staring back at her with unreadable eyes. He'd been stripped of his courtly finery and left in only his thin green undershirt and black pants, both now grimy from contact with the dirty stone floor and worse for wear. His carefully oiled hair was a tousled mess that hung in his face in slightly curly strands of chocolate brown that hid the swollen skin under his right eye but did nothing to hide his split lip or the dark blood on his chin. He'd fought the Asham guards with a desperate fury, but had he fought because he knew he was guilty and knew he faced the executioner's blade or because he knew he was innocent? The queen was having trouble believing either scenario. Innocent or guilty, she couldn't say. His wrists were encircled with thick iron manacles that were embedded in the floor by a two long chains. They rattled and clanked as he shifted, scooting back so that his back was flush against the wall behind him.

After a tense few moments, Revel lowered his gaze and stared at his bare feet folded under him. "You shouldn't have come," he said in a quiet whisper that carried almost unnaturally through the empty dungeon.

Suddenly, everything Elsa had wanted to demand from him vanished from her mind like fog burning away under the heat of the sun. The courage she'd mustered to just come down here faltered, and she was left speechless in front of the man who had entwined himself so completely into her life, who knew most of her secrets, who she could have talked endlessly with for hours in the past. Her muteness was startling: mouth opening and closing uselessly, her tongue limp against the back of her teeth. It took a few moments for the episode to pass. When Elsa finally rediscovered her courage she found her voice with it. A few tentative steps forward was all she was willing to take, hands clenched into tight fists at her side.

"You've been lying to me this entire time," she said lamely and silently cursed herself.

_Out of all the things I could have just said to him, that's the first thing out of my mouth?_

"Very perceptive," Revel said with a defeated sigh. "I will not deny that I lied to you and to everyone in this kingdom."

"Why?"

He almost laughed. It was such a simple question with such a tangled answer. Why, indeed? Why had he ever thought that he'd be able to run from the sins of his past? Why did he think he'd be able to hide from Adrek and Fritz? Why did he think she would somehow understand and believe him? Why had he hoped she would forgive him? Yes, why indeed.

"Isn't the answer simple?" he asked, canting his head to the side, brow wrinkled. "Because I wanted to live. What hope would a man wanted for the murder his father have while remaining in his own kingdom? I'll answer that for you. None. I ran, and I started over. Simple as that, and I created a persona for everyone else to see that would provide me with anonymity. No one suspected a thing. No one knew a murder walked among them."

"So it's true then. You murdered your father."

A beat of silence, quickly followed by another, before Revel answered. "Yes"

"You hesitated," Elsa observed, narrowing her eyes. Yes, she'd seen the calculation in his eyes. Revel wasn't a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination. A stupid man would have gotten caught after fleeing his country because of sloppy mistakes. A stupid man would have found himself on the executioner's block and not lived a full fifteen years after his crime. Revel was a man who thought out each and every move he made, and that realization chilled Elsa. Had she been just another calculation?

"Does it matter?" Revel asked, leaning his head back against the cold stones and closing his eyes. A part of himself just wanted this day to end, and an irrational part of himself was grimly glad the chase was over. Fifteen years was a long time to run.

"You stupid man, of course it matters!" Elsa exploded and a burst of frost climbed the wall behind her. "If you didn't commit this crime, I need to know! Your brother wants you extradited so that he can take you back to Asham where I have no doubt you'll be subjected to a mock trial and found guilty. If you didn't do this, if you didn't kill your father, tell me who did. Adrek claims Fritz found you over your father's body."

"Of course he would say that," Revel mumbled.

"So it isn't true? Fritz didn't find you—"

"He found me exactly as he described."

"So you are guilty. You slit your father's throat over an argument about inheritance."

"Yes."

Elsa took a step towards the cell, eyes lightening as anger burned hot and unchecked in her blood. "You're lying. Your father was stabbed to death."

A glimmer of confused surprise arched across Revel's face, there one second and gone the next. Elsa saw it and would have smirked in triumph at catching him a lie had she not been furious at him for lying to her in the first place. What was he trying to prove?

"It was fifteen years ago. The details are a bit cloudy in my mind."

"Really? I find that hard to believe. You don't forget killing someone, especially if that someone is your father. I imagine that, had you killed him, you'd be able to tell me in great detail every wound you cause him, ever plunge of the blade. You could describe exactly what he was wearing and the look on his as his life slipped from him. Do you know why I know this? Because traumatic moments, such as nearly killing someone or succeeding in it, are forever burned in your memory. You close your eyes and it's there. You open them and it's still there. It invades your dreams and every waking thought thereafter. So I'll ask again, why are you lying to me?"

"Fine. I stabbed him five times in the chest with my belt dagger."

"Adrek said he'd been killed with a sword thrust through his stomach and into his chest," she retorted icily.

"Then it was with my sword."

"Long or short?" she pressed taking another step closer.

"Short."

"Wrong, it was with a curved blade. I'll ask you again; did you kill your father?"

"Yes."

"Wrong, try again."

"I did kill him," he scowled, a shallow blush of frustration coloring his cheeks.

"You're losing ground, Revel. I thought you were better at this game," Elsa taunted without an ounce of mirth in her voice.

"Stop it," he warned, his voice low.

"Stop what? Blowing such gargantuan holes in your lies they will never again hold water? Stripping away your mask so I can see the real Revel beneath your deceit? Pushing you to tell the truth?"

"Stop pushing, Elsa."

"Not until I get the truth from you! What are you trying to prove? Who are you trying to protect?"

"I told you to stop!" Revel bellowed and came to his feet in a flash. He would have charged the bars had the chains around his wrists been long enough. As it was, he jerked to a stop feet from her like a dog running out of rope. His movements were so fast Elsa wasn't able to register what had happened until she heard the chain click and stumbled back in surprise. Her shock was quickly smothered under a heavy blanket of rage, and she too charged the bars.

"I am your queen!" she shouted back, the blue of her eyes fading to white. "You do not tell me when to stop. You! Listen! To! Me!"

"Forgive me, _Majesty_, but as it stands, you are not my queen," Revel challenged, face tight with anger. "You and I are equals."

"Not right now we're not. Right now you are a prince with a murder charge hanging above your head who seems so willing to throw himself on the blade for a crime he did not commit."

"You know nothing," Revel replied venomously.

"Only because you refuse to let me in!" Elsa breathed heavily through her nose, her anger burning in her cheeks and making her body quiver. A pregnant silence stretched between the two, green eyes locked with white in a battle of wills. Remarkably, she relented first and looked away, the rigid tension in her shoulders drooping a bit. "Are you so willing to throw everything away?"

Revel could read between the lines just as much as Elsa could, and inwardly winced as he took his place against the wall again. She wasn't talking about his life or his freedom. She was talking about herself. Was he so willing to throw her away like she was nothing but a springtime fling, a roll in the tall grass, a regal thrill? There was so much she didn't understand and needed to know, and the worst part was he couldn't tell her. Danger lurked around every corner, and Elsa was blind to it. Revel knew it was there, and he knew that in this case knowledge could be the linchpin to her downfall. So he bit his lip and said nothing.

"Stop it," Elsa hissed.

"Stop what? Giving you the answers you want?"

"No! Giving your _brother_ what he wants! Of all things you are, Revel: a liar, a thief, a poacher, a guard, a—" she almost said lover but stopped herself in time, "you are not a _victim_, and all I hear coming from your mouth right now are the words of a man condemning himself to death."

"I will take my punishment, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it."

"Is that what you want? To die?" Elsa snarled. "Because I can grant you that request quite easily."

Hands gripping the bars until her knuckles turned white, the queen let her magic go where it pleased, the temperature in the cell dropping to a barely livable degree. Frost bloomed along the stone walls and snaked between the mortar lines, stalactites of dark ice growing in the corners of the dungeon and descending from the thick beams overhead. Smooth, cylindrical javelins sprouted around Revel like lethal arctic flowers, points so wickedly sharp they could have been used as needles. He froze, breath vaporizing around his head like a cloud, as the needles of ice stretched towards him like crystalline fingers, their gleaming tips crying out for blood.

The cold assaulted him from every angle, numbness creeping into his bare skin and making his very marrow ache. His body began shivering, frost accumulating along the bottom hem of his pants and shirt and spreading further as the temperature continue to plummet with each exhale from the queen. The iron shackles around his wrists froze, links seizing in place, the cold metal like fire against his skin. He hissed at the pain, but it was as much a blessing as it was a curse because the colder he got the clearer his head became.

"If I am t-to die," Revel shivered, his teeth chattering so severely he could barely form words, "I w-would r-r-rather it b-be…by your hands th-than my…brothers." He would have said more but the cold was quickly starting to steal his reason along with his consciousness. Still, he fought to stare into the white eyes of his lover, eyes that boiled with anger and sadness and hatred.

_Even if that's the last thing I see, I would rather go to my death with her face in my mind's eye rather than the wood of the executioners block, _he thought sadly.

The power of his words hit Elsa like a cannon blast and she rocked back with the force of it, blinking as if waking from a dream. She realized what was happening a second later and released her grip on the bars, looking around the room in horrified wonder at the arctic death closing in around her. This was a manifestation of her anger and fear and grief; the same creeping darkness that had overtaken her ice palace like a cancer after she'd chased Anna and Kristoff off North Mountain with Marshmallow. It was cleaner somehow, less fractured and jagged than it had been years ago, and that terrified her all the more. Her powers had only grown since she'd learned to control them. Three years ago her magic had reacted purely on instinct, but the dark ice growing around her now was tailor-maid for lethality and it was all pointed towards Revel.

_Are you so full of regal ego you think yourself judge, jury, and executioner? Look at you, losing your temper like a child when you should be trying to figure out why he continues to lie._

Elsa started at the sudden realization, her stomach dropping through the floor. Was that what she was doing? Presuming the title of all three and passing sentence? But there was also something else here, something darker. Revel would rather have her to be his executioner than his brother, to die by her hands. Was it the ultimate blow of twisted revenge that the woman who loved him, had loved him, perhaps still loved him, would be his undoing?

"No, I will not give you the satisfaction of haunting me. I have enough demons in my life, past and present. I don't need to add your death to the weight of shame I already drag around," the queen said with acrid finality. Throwing out her arms, she dispersed her magic and pulled it back into her. The room immediately returned to its original, slightly clammy temperature, but the difference was like emerging from a frozen lake and jumping into a sauna. Revel gasped at the sudden change, his body heat starved and shaking.

"That's n-n-not w-what I m-meant."

"Really? How else was I supposed to take it?"

He fought to keep his teeth from chattering so that he could speak, but the more he tried to suppress the shivers the harder they came. After a moment he was able to control himself long enough to answer. "I know you wouldn't prolong the inevitable."

"You mean torture you," Elsa frowned.

"Yes. You would grant me a swift death, a….a peaceful one. Adrek he—" words suddenly escaped him as he struggled to find the right thing to say, "he may not be a vengeful man, but he savagely protects what's his."

"And are you not his as well?" she snapped. "You're his brother! The crime you may have committed was heinous, yes, but he would stoup to torturing you? For what? Causing you pain won't bring your father back! Killing you won't change the past either!" Elsa was shaking now, the tears she'd been fighting back since earlier that evening finally brimming in her eyes. "Killing you won't make things right, it just continues the cycle of heartache and bitterness."

"There are laws not even royalty can skirt, Elsa. You know this. Treason is treason, no matter what your standing is, but you have to put yourself in his shoes," Revel said quietly, his previously felt anger all but gone. "What would you do if you discovered your sister had killed your parents?"

"I wouldn't kill her as punishment! I wouldn't _torture_ her!"

"You can't possibly say that with certainty—"

"You think I can't?!" Elsa screamed, clutching the bars again and pressing her face between the gaps. "I would never because I know Anna never would. For the longest time I blamed myself for my parents' death, did you know that? I stood on the library balcony the night their ship went down and laughed in the face of God. For all I know, he killed them to prove a point. So through my reasoning, I blamed myself, and I thought Anna did too. Three years later I nearly destroy my entire kingdom and _everyone_ in it_._ Anna could have hated me for what I'd done. For shutting her out as a child, for closing myself off to her, for running away from my duties, _for shooting her through the fucking heart with ice_! I killed my sister. She died for a few seconds on the fjord, but was her first instinct to attack and kill me in return? _No_! The thought never crossed her mind because we're family, and despite everything, despite the darkness in our lives, we love each other. So don't you dare sit there and tell me that family wants family dead because of past sins. You deserve punishment, yes, but not death. And asking for my aid in killing yourself is beyond disgusting."

Revel sat in stunned silence, Elsa's words more than just a slap in the face. He knew she was right, but she didn't know his family. Didn't know the depth of Adrek's hatred towards him. Even from across the room he could see the tears trailing down her face and was overcome with the uncontrollable urge to thumb them away like he had in the past. He wanted to hold her, to tell her everything was going to be alright, but Revel knew it would just be another lie to go with the rest. His fate was sealed, had been since that fateful night fifteen years ago, but that still didn't mean he wanted what was coming or to see the pain it was causing the woman he still loved.

"You have to let me go, Elsa," he said softly. "I know my fate and where it's going to take me. Adrek isn't a man you want to anger, and I don't want you to put Arendelle in danger because of me."

_You have to let me go_.

The words echoed in her mind like the roll of distant thunder, and she felt a familiar nauseous dread coil in her stomach. She'd begged Hans the same thing. Begged him to let her go, to let her retreat into the mountains and live the rest of her life in isolation because the kingdom was better off without her. Was that what Revel was telling her to do? Was he telling her to let him go because he knew she was better off without him?

"This isn't fate, its choice, and it's taking you where you want to go," she retorted bitterly turning away, thankful that the shadows of the dungeon hid most of her crushing anguish.

"We both know that isn't true. Just please…" Revel sighed, staring at the back of her head, "don't watch when they put me on Adrek's ship. Just let me go."

Elsa turned, her mind slow to realize what she was saying. "I'll do what I can." The instant those words fell from her lips her hand clapped over her mouth, and she felt her stomach heave.

_Just like Hans. Oh God, I'm just like him._

She felt a familiar darkness twisting within the recesses of her mind and recognized the prickle at the base of her skull. The voice that Saja had silenced during her first encounter had been gagged, but the queen could still feel the slithering, coiling creature buried deep in her soul, the darker part of herself that fed her lies while feasting on her anxiety and fear. It was still bound but she knew it was devouring every minute of her world collapse with gleeful appreciation. She could almost feel it telling her it had been right all along; that it was only a matter of time before he betrayed her and left her like everyone else had in the past.

_Only a monster could love another monster, Snow Queen. _The whisper somehow slid past her defenses and she jerked in surprise.

The mark on her shoulder suddenly flared with intense, icy heat, and the queen let out a startled cry and stumbled into the wall adjacent to her, sagging there with back to Revel. Holding her shoulder and hissing through her teeth, she rode the waves of pain that quickly spread across her chest and crawled up her neck in tendrils of sparking fire. A vision flashed behind her tightly shut eyes: Saja, eyes white with power, screaming her name seemingly at the top of her lungs. The vision clouded before fading like windblown mist, but the pain in her shoulder remained. She blinked blurrily back into the present to someone else saying her name.

"…wrong with the mark. Elsa, please turn around," Revel pleaded, pulling against the chains anchoring him in the middle of his cell. Slowly, turning only her head, she looked back at the man she didn't want to love but couldn't bring herself to kill her feelings for, and saw him straining, every muscle in his chest and neck corded as he tried to pull himself towards her. But it was his eyes that captivated and held her attention. Despite everything that was happening to him, despite their argument moments ago, despite his arrest and murder charge, despite having the executioner's block looming ahead of him, at this moment the only thing showing in Revel's eyes was concern for her. There wasn't any hint of fear for his future, not a scrap of concern about his own wellbeing. The only thing Elsa could read on him was genuine concern and it put such a weight in her stomach she barely turned away in time as fresh tears fell.

Desperate to leave the dungeon and the devastation of her crumbling world, Elsa staggered to the door and pound on the rough, iron studded wood three times with the flat of her palm. "I'm done here," she called to the guard through the closed observation hatch.

"Wait, Elsa stop!" When she didn't answer and promptly stepped through the open door, fresh fear seized him. Revel could almost taste the unfamiliar magic buzzing in the air around him, magic that didn't feel anything like Elsa's ice power. It was electricity on his skin, miniscule arches of blue lightning raising the hair on his arms and the back of his neck. "Majesty, you have to find your sister! Find Anna!"

"Is everything alright?" the guard asked looking back at a shouting and struggling Revel.

Elsa mustered all her strength to answer in an even tone. "The cries of a desperate man. Leave him to his ravings."

"Please, you know what's happening! We both do— Elsa please! _Please!_"

The guard nodded and shut the door, effectively cutting off Revel's cries. The queen could feel tears sliding down her cheeks as she walked up the narrow staircase and left the dungeon. Fighting back a heavy sniff, she wiped at her eyes and tried to smother the agony of her breaking heart. No, she would not give Revel the satisfaction of tears. Right now, as the tumulus sky rolled at the behest of an unmerciful wind, the only thing Elsa wanted to do was scream.

* * *

><p>Anna woke with a start as a clap of thunder shook the palace, windows rattling in their frames. For a breathless moment she lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling trying to get her heart to leave her throat and settle back in her chest. Unlike her sister, she never liked thunderstorms. Maybe it was their unpredictability; maybe it was the power they could unleash upon the land; maybe it was because her parent's ship went down during a storm at sea. Whatever the reason, Anna disliked thunderstorms and being woken by one was perhaps the most terrifying thing of all. Sleeping soundly in a nice warm bed only to be shaken awake by a tremendously loud clap of thunder that shook—<p>

A brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the room for a brief half second, and the princess held her breath. As a child, her father had taught her how to gauge how far out storms were by the seconds between lightning flashes and thunder claps.

"One…two…three…four…five…six—"

BOOM! Again the castle shook, and this time Anna was out of bed before she realized she'd moved. Kristoff mumbled in his sleep and turned towards her, blinking blearily.

"Wha…wuz'wrong?" he slurred, half way sitting up.

"Nothing love, go back to bed," Anna soothed, forcing a smile. Her husband stared at her for a moment, eyes half lidded and heavy with sleep, before sighing and flopping back into the pillows. The princess knew he was just as exhausted as she was, so she couldn't blame him for falling back to sleep almost instantly. None of the royal family had gotten to bed until late that night after the fiasco that had been the Summit ball. Elsa had gone into a heated meeting with King Adrek immediately following Revel's arrest and hadn't emerged from the parlor until just before midnight. Anna only caught a glimpse of her as she headed towards the east wing but hadn't known whether to follow or not. Deciding to give Elsa space, Anna returned to her room and slid into bed next to her husband, content to let the horrible day fade away but finding herself awoken by heavy claps of thunder.

Standing at the edge of her bed, Anna thought she heard quiet footfalls in the hallway and turned to look at her door. A shadow passed by, visible only between the small gap between her carpet and door. A second later it was gone, heading in the direction of her sister's room.

_I need to go talk to her or at least be near her_, Anna thought with fresh determination as she moved closer to the door, periodic flashes of white blue lightning illuminating her room in jerky, stop-motion bursts. Rumbles of thunder followed like the throaty growl of some massive sky beast, but none as loud as the boom that had woken her. Throwing on a thin robe, she went to the door and pulled it open.

The hallway beyond was deserted, as it should be at this time of night, and lit by small wall sconces evenly spaced along the wall. She honed in on her sister's door and caught it just as it was closing behind someone. Taking a breath, because thunderstorms really did bother her, Anna closed her door quietly behind her and began walking toward her sister's room. She made it to Elsa's door before another loud clap of thunder rattled the windows seconds before torrential rain broke free from the boiling clouds and beat down on the castle. Between the near blinding flashes of light, Anna could see the storm through the hallway window behind her rolling in off the sea, wind whipping the trees into a frenzy of thrashing movement. There was such ferocity to their swaying and snapping, such power in the drive of the rain, so much anger in the thunder, Anna suddenly became uneasy standing in the open hallway, and she pulled her robe tighter around her for both comfort and warmth. Was it her imagination or did the hallway seem cooler than usual?

"Elsa?" she called over the cacophony of the storm, hoping her knock could be heard. "Elsa, are you awake?"

Not wanting her back to the open hallway anymore, Anna turned the knob and was surprised to find the door unlocked. Gingerly, she pushed it open and peeked inside just as another flash of lightning lit the palace. In the static blue and white brightness she could see that her sister's bed was empty and she wasn't anywhere inside. A little perplexed, because she was sure she'd seen someone walk into her room, Anna stepped back into the hallway and shut the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone walk into the library and frowned.

_How did she get all the way down there without me seeing?_

Biting her lip uncertainly, Anna shifted from foot to foot. She was already unnerved and the stretch of castle between her sister's room and the library was long and sparsely lit because of the large windows. Every time the lightning flashed it illuminated those windows and momentarily froze writhing shadows of thrashing trees and driving rain along the opposite wall. To say it was creepy would have been an understatement.

_I really, _really_ don't like thunderstorms._

Deciding her sister was well worth the eerie trek down the long shadowy hallway, Anna took off towards the library door as fast as her pregnant body would allow. She kept her eyes on farthest wall, not wanting to see the outside world or the storm raging around her kingdom. When the princess finally reached the library, she peeked in and was bewildered to find it empty as well.

"I think I'm losing my mind," Anna mumbled, closing the door with a click. Suddenly exhausted, she leaned against the door and put a hand against her stomach. The little one nestled within her womb seemed to sense its mother's touch and shifted, kicking as it did.

"You don't like storms either, little one," Anna said with a small smile and start back towards her room. No use scouring the castle for her sister. Elsa would turn up by morning and Anna would talk to her then.

As she passed one of the large windows, the princess had the sudden, uncontrollable urge to stop and watch the storm break over the fjord. At first, only her reflection stared back at her in the dark glass until a strobe of lightning illuminated the chaotic world beyond the castle. April storms weren't all that uncommon in Arendelle, but one this violent this early in the season was strange. Eventually the sky went dark again and Anna blinked in the sudden absence of light. Her reflection stared back at her along with—

Anna felt her pulse pound in her throat when she saw her sister standing behind her, blue eyes locked with hers. "Sweet God, Elsa," she panted, grabbing at her heart and turning, "are you trying to make me—"

The princess felt the blood drain from her face in a rush. The hallway in both directions was empty; no one stood behind her. Immediately, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she felt the unnerving sensation of being watched settle between her shoulder blades. Something wasn't right. Heart pounding hummingbird fast, she stood with her back pressed against the window, arms braced against the ledge, her eyes darting from own end of the hall to the other.

_I know I'm not seeing things. I know someone was there…I know…_

A familiar sound caught her attention as the rain beat down on the window, and she froze. It was the unmistakable sound of creeping ice, the creaking and popping as the fractals spread and multiplied, frosting the warm glass until it was opaque. Slowly, Anna turned only her head and watched the ice continued to spread. When it touched the small of her back, she whirled and stared wide eyed at the window. It was nearly frosted over, but how? Her sister wasn't anywhere near…so who was—

Lightning split the sky followed instantly by a massive thunderclap. This time, however, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the hallway, Anna watched the silhouette of a hand appear in the middle of a fully frosted pane as if someone were holding a warm hand there. She was so focused on the materializing handprint that she didn't notice the woman emerge from the shadows behind her like a wraith. A breath of icy air rolled across her neck, this time followed by a single, whispered word…

"Anna."

Pregnancy be damned, Anna took off like a shot down the hallway, running at full speed. She swung around the corner next to her sister's room so fast she almost lost her balance, but luckily years of barreling full tilt through the palace had conditioned the princess and she expertly righted herself and continued her mad dash towards her room. More lightning flashed and thunder rolled, punctuating her footfalls like the sharp tattoo of drums. Passing one of the last black glass windows, Anna saw the reflection of the woman in the dark glass screaming at her and stumbled in shocked terror, slamming painfully into the opposite wall when she whirled away. The same window frosted a second later, each dark pane smothered in opaque frost. Fresh panic gripped her, and Anna ran faster, knowing with sick knowledge that if she fell whatever was literally breathing down her neck would catch her. It was one of her worst nightmares come true and she ran until her lungs burned.

The princess reached her door in a matter of seconds though it felt as if she'd been running for hours. Hands shaking, she struggled to turn the door handle, tears welling in her eyes as she felt the creeping frost catch up to her, icy fingers trailing over her face and neck as if searching for something. She thought she saw a shadow detach from the wall a little ways down the hallway, thought she saw frost creep along the floor as the figure neared, but it could have been her imagination. Anna was finally able to shove her way into safety, slamming the door shut behind her with a bang.

"Kris…Kristo…Krostoff," she panted, trying to catch her breath as she braced herself against the smooth wood. Something bumped the door and she shot away from it. "_Kristoff_!"

The mountain man surged out of bed, naked as his name day, body moving solely on instinct. He realized something was happening and grabbed the hatchets he always kept next to the bed and moved towards his wife. He took in her milk white face, wheezing breaths, and sweat prickled brow with a glance, but what put a ball of anxiety in his chest was the terror in her eyes as she stared at the door and the ice slowly starting to creep under it.

"Anna, what wrong with Elsa?" he demanded moving between his wife and the door, hatches clutched in knuckle white hands. It was curious his mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that Anna's terror was somehow caused by the queen, but that's where his reason landed. He wondered if metal weapons would be enough to protect them. Guess he'd just have to find out.

"Not…not Elsa—"

"What do you mean?"

"She wasn't….she wasn't in her room or…library. Someone else….someone—"

Anna would have said more had she not noticed a faint glow illuminating a small portion of her room behind them and turned to look at her mirror. A wordless shriek tore from her throat as she saw the woman standing in the glass, glowing white eyes shining like beacons in the night. Kristoff saw it too and put himself between the specter and his screaming wife, but even he froze with fear when the woman pushed through the undulating glass and stepped into their world. Without a second's hesitation, he cocked his arm and let the hatchet in his right hand fly free with a tremendous rush. The blade flew true and would have struck the woman directly between the eyes had it not sailed through her as if she were smoke and smashed the mirror to pieces.

"Anna, run! Get out of the castle, and go to the troll—"

Kristoff was cut off mid-sentence when powerful blast of arctic air erupted against his right side and sent him sailing into the wall with enough force to splinter the wood. He crumpled to the floor in a heap, his arms and feet instantly enveloped in crystalline blue ice and locked in place where her lay. Anna instinctively moved towards her husband, but the specter moved when she did, and the princess froze.

"What do you want?!" she screamed, trembling hands thrown out in front of her in anticipation for an attack. The woman turned her unearthly eyes on the princess, and Anna's body quivered as paralyzing fear sank its talons into her. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe, couldn't see straight as the room began to spin. She didn't know why she was locking up now. Of all the horrors seen in her life, of the handful of near death experiences she'd been a part of, Anna couldn't figure out why her body had suddenly betrayed her and began shutting down. When the woman took a step forward, blackness crept into the corners of her vision and she felt herself began to slide to the floor. A deeper part of herself screamed for her to stay awake; she had to protect herself, had to protect the baby, but the blackness was more powerful.

"Peace, Anna Frosberg, I mean you and your family no harm," the strange woman said in a voice so eerily similar to Elsa's it sent an involuntary shiver down Anna's spine.

The princess anticipated the bone-jarring impact of hitting the ground, but instead, something cold gently brushed against her, icy arms slowly raising her back up. Blinking as consciousness quickly returned, Anna looked around and realized she was lying against a sheet of ice that had kept her from hitting the ground. As she became more aware of her surroundings, the ice sheet began to rise forward until she was again standing on her own two feet.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to scare you."

The princess looked up and reflexively flinched away from the strange woman who looked so eerily similar to her sister. There were only a few marked differences between the two: the woman was older, she had a different shade of blue to her eyes, and her white hair hung loose around her shoulders with small micro braids running along either side of her head. Aside from that though, the woman could have been Elsa's double.

_Elsa's double…._

"S-Saja?" Anna ventured, voice shaking with adrenalin.

"Yes," Saja nodded and smiled.

"I…what — I don't understand," she sputtered, her mind running faster than her tongue. "Why are you here? I mean…I know why you're here, but why are you here _here…_in my room? Aren't you supposed to be only in Elsa's dreams?"

Saja's face scrunched into something akin to frustrated irritation, and Anna realized something was wrong. "I have been trying to communicate with your sister all evening, but I'm unable to get through to her. I don't know how she's blocking me, but I need to tell her something important. So I came to you instead."

"God above, you scared the shit out of me! Why the hell didn't you come to me in a dream instead of crawling out of my mirror like some kind of demon?"

"You and your sister have a strange way of imagining demons," Saja grumbled. "I've not made a connection with you, so I had to manifest myself first."

"You mean you've not branded me," Anna retorted, taking another step back. The Frost Born caught the movement and hung her head with a sigh.

"I will not mark you, Anna. In fact, I can't. You do not carry the Frost Born power, so my mark would mean nothing. Your mother made sure she did not make the same mistake with you that she did with your sister."

Somehow Saja's remark kindled a spark of anger in her chest, and Anna scowled. "My sister was not a mistake."

"No, she was prophecy," the Frost Born mumbled too quietly for the princess to hear.

"What?"

"I said, I did not say she was a mistake, but I doubt your mother and father anticipated their first child being born with Snaer's power. Regardless, I'm not here to speak about the past. What I have to say pertains to the present. The man your sister loves has a secret he wishes no one to know."

"You're a little late on your delivery," Anna huffed and crossed her arms. "Revel was arrested this afternoon for murder."

"No, that's not his only secret. Within his chambers he hides something else. It's hidden behind a strange colored stone in his hearth."

Anna frowned in confusion. "How do you know this?"

"A few weeks ago your sister's lover touched her mark while it was warring with the troll magic she'd summoned me with," Saja said and slid her eyes towards a struggling Kristoff who had just awoken and was trying his best to break the ice bonds keeping him in place. The muscles of his chest and arms corded and rolled as he strained, his screams muffled by the ice gag over his mouth. Anna followed Saja's line of sight and her eyes went wide when she saw the state her husband was in.

"Let him go!" she shouted and ran over to him. Kristoff was trying to tell her something, his head snapping repeatedly towards the door, but that was all he could get through to her. Anna tried to dig her fingers under the gag but the ice was flush with his skin.

"Not until I've finished speaking to you," Saja said flatly.

"You're hurting him!"

"My ice is merely keeping him in place. He hurts himself by struggling."

"Let him go, or this conversation is over!"

Anna saw a glint of anger spark in the Frost Born's eyes but refused to lower her gaze. After a silent, tense moment, Saja exhaled sharply through her nose and waved her hand with forced casualness, dissolving the gag.

"Get the fuck away from my wife!" was the first thing Kristoff screamed when he realized he could speak again. "Get out of our room and go back to whatever goddamn cave you crawled from!"

"So the changeling has some bark after all," Saja said with a cheerless smile.

"I'm not a changeling, winter bitch!" Kristoff roared and pulled against the ice holding his arms against the wall.

Saja's stare turned dangerous, the light blue of her eye dissolving into static white. "The gag has been removed, but you will instruct your husband to keep his tongue between his teeth, or I will rip it out of his throat. I did not come here to argue with a troll's bastard."

Kristoff would have said more had Anna not realized Saja's threat carried merit and clapped a hand over his mouth. "Kristoff, please, if she wanted to hurt me she'd have done it already. I don't like this anymore than you do, but please don't make her angry."

The mountain man glared at the Frost Born for a long while before eventually nodding his head in agreement. Anna sighed with relief and carefully climbed to her feet. "Can you unfreeze him, please?"

"Not until you have I have finished speaking," Saja said with a flat finality.

"Fine," Anna conceded, shoulder dropping a bit. "How do know about Revel's secrets?"

"When his skin touched your sister's brand some of his blood mingled with hers. She wasn't able to see it, but I saw glimpses of his past and the secret he's been hiding since traveling to your land."

"Did he truly kill his father?" Anna asked eagerly, desperate to know that truth.

"I couldn't tell that much from the glimpses I saw, but I know about the piece of paper his father gave to him before his death. Revel hides it behind his hearth stones."

"Why are you helping us?" Kristoff snarled angrily.

"Why?" Saja canted her head, brow furrowed, "Because this man and your sister are linked through blood and magic. Revel is the only chance Elsa has of making certain the Frost Born line continues since the little ones squirming around in your womb have been robbed of that birthright by yet more troll magic."

"What? There's been no troll magic used on my child." Anna looked down at her stomach, face suddenly flushing with heat.

"You offered the fertility goddess the herbal bundle," Saja explained gruffly.

"But…that came from the mountain shaman…" Anna seemed to suddenly realize something and rocked back with the shock of it. "All this time I thought Snaer was the mountain shaman, but she wasn't…was she?"

"My mother is no shaman. That herbal poultice came from the trolls, but that is a story from another time."

"Did…did you say _little ones_?" Kristoff asked, stunned into passiveness.

Saja frowned and cautiously approached the princess. When Anna jumped away, she rolled her eyes in such an eerie echo of how Elsa rolled her eyes when exasperated. "I'm not going to hurt you, nor am I going to hurt your children."

"You can't—" Anna felt the coldness of the Frost Born's touch even through the layers of her robe and nightgown and stared down in wonder at Saja's ice covered right hand. No, not ice covered…they're made entirely out of ice, the princess realized with a thrill of shock. Saja gently slid her hand along the top of Anna's swollen stomach and down over the side before stopping next to her belly button and closing her eyes. Anna felt a slight tingle race through her extremities, and lightly bit down on her bottom lip while trying not to jerk or move.

"Yes, there are two little ones growing within you," Saja confirmed and smiled warmly as her hand continued to stroke Anna's stomach. When she looked back up at the princess, Anna thought she saw tears shining in her eyes. "You are a lucky woman. Two children born at once is a sign of good fortune."

"Th-thank you," she stammered, body numb with astonishment. Her own hand came to rest against the side of her stomach, and she turned wide-eyed towards an equally shocked Kristoff. "Two, Kristoff. We're having two." The mountain man could only manage a weak nod.

"Yes, a happy day, but the two of you must find Elsa," Saja said, snapping the couple out of their parental bliss. "I sense darkness creeping in around her and Revel and fear that if you two do not act quickly one of them will lose their life."

"Can you tell who or what the darkness is?"

"Someone residing within the kingdom, but I am not a seer like my mother. I lack the ability to narrow my vision, but I can tell it is close. It may even be here in this palace, so move quickly."

"Can't you do something about it?" Kristoff asked, sagging against his bonds.

"I can barely keep this form for much longer; what do you expect me to do?" When Saja saw their blank looks, she made a face. "I was only able to manifest because of the storm. I'm drawing power from it, but once it dissipates I'll only be able to visit through dreams. By the time I amass enough energy to communicate with Elsa it will be too late."

The mention of the thunderstorm brought Anna's attention back towards the window. A few weak flashes of lightning still lit the sky but nothing compared to the heart of the storm that had been over the kingdom minutes ago. Even the rain seemed to have lessened.

"Find your sister, and tell her what I've told you, but be careful. If the darkness I sense is truly within the castle, your movements may be closely watched. Whoever bears Revel ill will intends to make sure he dies. Do not let that happen."

Anna nodded once, hands moving up to her chest, before nodding more vigorously. "Yes. We'll do what you ask."

Saja inclined her head and walked back to the mirror Kristoff's hatchet had destroyed. Using her magic to raise the wooden structure back to standing, she pressed a hand against the bare wood and conjured a glass smooth surface that immediately frosted. Before she stepped back through the mirror, she dissolved the bonds holding Kristoff.

"Be swift, Anna. Time is not on your side."

"I will, and thank you."

Saja bowed fractionally, a movement that echoed Elsa's own tight bow. "I watch over what is mine." Then her sharp azure eyes snapped over to the mountain man who had just regained his feet. Kristoff saw her staring and moved reflexively towards his wife. "Remember that, troll son. I protect what is mine. The trolls may have blinded the three of you to their true nature, but I know better."

"Continue speaking ill of my adoptive family, and we'll see how powerful you think you are," Kristoff growled.

"That's right, changeling. They will always be your _adoptive family_," Saja said and pointed an icy finger at Kristoff's bare chest and the lightly glowing yellow gems hanging there. "You will never remember who you truly are while under their spell. Remember that."

Before either could retort, she was gone, disappearing back into the mirror.

"I hate her," Kristoff fumed, rubbing his sore, cold wrists.

"Elsa said she had a very warped view of trolls, so don't take what she said to heart," Anna soothed and placed a warm hand against his cheek. He leaned into her touch and put his own hand over hers while the other sought and found the roundness of her stomach.

"Could she be right? Could you be having two?" Suddenly, he sank to his knees and pressed his ear to her stomach as if he could hear whether or not Saja had been telling the truth.

"We won't know until they're born," Anna smiled as she splayed her long fingers through her husband's thick blond hair. "I'll be happy with whatever we have."

After a silent moment, the mountain man rose to his feet and grabbed a pair of pants from the dresser next to their bed. "We need to find Elsa."

It hadn't been but half a heartbeat from when the syllables fell from Kristoff's lips that the door flew open with a bang. The queen stood on the doorway with her hands braced on either side of the frame, dripping wet from head to toe.

* * *

><p>She didn't know where her feet would take her and couldn't find the energy to care. She passed servants but hardly registered their polite nods, past guards, and doors and walls and stone. Elsa wandered aimlessly after leaving the dungeon, her head in such a fog she could hardly compose a complete sentence in her mind. It was all too much, and she was shutting down. Her first instinct was to go to her room and lock the door, to ice it closed and lose herself in the darkness. But there were ghosts in that room to painful to face, phantoms of a happier time. The library was the same way, so she wandered further. It came as a bit of a shock when Elsa realized she was standing at the top of the southernmost parapet looking out over her dark kingdom, the wind whipping her hair around as it rolled in off the sea.<p>

_This is where it all began_, a small, functioning part of her mind whispered.

Yes, she'd first met Revel here a lifetime ago the day Kristoff and Anna had departed for their honeymoon. He'd been in mourning, pouring libations into the sea for a lost loved one. She could remember so clearly the pain in his eyes as he stared out over the dark water, the sad set of his shoulders as he revealed why he was pouring out perfectly good brandy. The memory was like crystal in her mind's eyes yet the innocence of it seemed tainted somehow. The sadness the queen had seen suddenly seemed less like sadness and more like bitter regret.

Turning away, Elsa approached the tower behind her and stepped past the heavy wood door. The guard at the base of the stairs jumped back with a startled squeak when the queen emerged from the antechamber. She was sure he'd addressed her, perhaps asked where she was going, but Elsa didn't respond. Her body was being driven solely on instinct, and that instinct was pulling her like a magnet towards the Overlook.

The climb happened in the blink of an eye. One second she was at the bottom of the steep incline, the heady scent of salt and earth swirling around her as the wind picked up and bent the trees, and the next she was at the top overlooking the sea and the storm front fast approaching. In the distance bright arms of sky fire snaked down from the rolling clouds and struck the sea. If she strained hard enough the distant rumble of thunder could be heard, but for now it was far off, the forceful wind the only indication that the weather was about to turn.

Despite it being pitch black, Elsa knew her way without having to see the trail and took a sharp right at the top of the incline. Her feet lead her towards the great stone monoliths and the shimmering ice sculptures standing between them. King Agdar and Queen Idun, their iridescent, crystalline bodies forever standing guard over the kingdom they had loved, watching over the daughters they left too soon, stared back at Elsa with kind eyes. She'd sculpted them that way, to appear eternally at peace and willing to share that peace with whoever stood before them, but tonight that expression did little for the queen. In fact, it was such a jarring contrast to the frenzied chaos boiling inside her, Elsa had to turn away in shame, tears leaking out of the corner of her puffy eyes. There was no peace to be found here tonight, only sadness and pain. Only punishment.

A wave of crushing anguish slammed into her with such sudden force she almost doubled over, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. It felt like the world had been turned upside down and was slowly being lowered onto her chest. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think. The tightness in her chest was only matched by the fist sized lump in her throat, and Elsa crashed to her knees in the damp grass as the sobs she'd been trying to hold back finally broke free. In the clinging darkness she felt herself falling apart, pieces stripped away by the bracing wind and thrown into the ether.

How could it have all fallen apart so quickly? Hadn't she done everything in her power to protect him, to love him? Hadn't she given him every part of herself, body and soul? She had known he held a secret, but Elsa had been willing to love him regardless. Hadn't she told him that so many times in the darkness of her room while they lay tangled together? Yet in the end he'd betrayed her. Revel had lied about everything. About his past, about his crimes, about his station….about loving her. Yes, Elsa couldn't bring herself to even dare to hope that he'd ever truly loved her despite everything he'd said in the dungeon.

_If he truly loved me, truly trusted me, he wouldn't have lied_.

Suddenly her sobs transformed into screams that echoed around her like a banshee screech. Head pressed against her knees, Elsa let the weight of her misery crush her and screamed her agony for God and all creation to hear. Magic erupted around her, confused and jagged pieces of her soul frozen in writhing arms of ice that spread like a cancer. She couldn't control it, didn't want to.

"Why?" she choked in a ragged whisper. "Why are you doing this to me?" The question was for Revel to answer, but something else seemed to have heard and thought it appropriate to reply. Elsa felt the hairs along her arms stand on end and uncurled in time to see a blazing arm of pale blue lightning snake out of the sky and strike the sea not far from where she sat. A crackling boom of thunder shook the Overlook, the ground vibrating with the sound.

Eyes turning towards the roiling sky, Elsa stared at the black clouds, and her own anger seemed to rise to match the anger of the heavens. Onto shaking legs she climbed, ice crackling and snapping under her as she staggered towards the cliff's edge. The bracing wind returned, blowing her back as if warning her away, but grief was quickly being overtaken by rage and the earth under her froze, the wind turning to blowing frost as it swept past her.

"What did I do to deserve this?!" she screamed into the wind at the being she knew was staring down at her with contempt. Her chest was heaving, the weight of heartbreak that had hung there only minutes ago thrown aside. She could feel her blood turning to ice in her veins, her magic writhing within her like a wild animal. "Why do you insist on taking everything away from me? You took my parents, you nearly took my life, you nearly took Anna's, and now you're taking _him_ away? For once, why can't you just let me be happy!?"

Lightning answered her cries, sizzling and furious. It struck a tree somewhere to her left and the roar of the connection between earth and sky was deafening.

"Fuck you!" Elsa screamed in response at the top of her lungs. "I won't let you take any more from me! I am the Snow Queen. I am Frost Born! Do you hear me?!" she bellowed, turning in a slow circle as the first drops of rain hit the ground around her. "Do you hear me Saja; do you hear me _Snaer_? This is my kingdom and my power! My life! And I'm not going to stand by and let you goddamn _deities_, or whatever the hell you are, control my fate anymore!"

The storm above her broke with a ferocity that very nearly matched Elsa's rage. Very nearly but not entirely. Lightning rent the sky and thunder roared as rain pelted the ground like a waterfall. Gust after savage gust threw itself against the queen, driving her back from the cliff's edge with such howling disdain she felt the skies outraged fury deep in her marrow. Elsa stood in the downpour, teeth gritted and fists clenched knuckle white at her side as she weathered the storm crashing against her. It was wild and vengeful, screaming its hate at her like she had it.

_You've not yet seen the depth of my rage._

Will-ice climbed her arms like glowing ivy as a savage need to combat the tempest overcame her. The first wave of magic that leapt from her was thrown back in her face like a resentful slap, the storm mocking her. Again she threw out her arm and again the wind ripped her magic away as if swatting a pesky fly. The howling wind laughed in her ears and pelted her with stinging rain. Seething, Elsa chambered the writhing ball of arctic ferocity in her abdomen for a third time and threw out both arms, this time pushing with all her might against the wind. Twisted crystalline fractals began to grow in front of her, layer after layer, her magic rippling and bucking against the storm. Elsa stepped forward, head down, shoulders braced, screaming her pain and hatred at whatever god peered at her from the darkness. She bellowed and roared and pushed, determined to drive the storm back as proof that she was no one to be trifled with. Only when she no longer felt the sting of rain on her face or hear the howl of the wind in her ears did the queen drop her arms and stand gasping in the face of her creation.

It wasn't so much a wall as it was a half formed shell. Sixty feet of dark ice rose before her like the wall of some ethereal cathedral, arching fingers closing in overhead from where the wind had manipulated her magic like wet clay. The overhang above kept the rain from her and drove a wedge between her and the wind. A bolt of lightning arched down from the sky, illuminating the rippling cavern. It was like looking up at the sky from underwater, the light from the bolt fractured and refracted a hundred times over. Elsa stepped back, her anger slipping away as she gazed up at in speechless wonder. It was breathtaking what her magic mated with a tempest could create, and it was a stark reminder how wild the power coursing through her veins was.

She didn't realize how close to her parents' grave she'd created the ice cave until she caught a glimpse of the iridescent statures out of the corner of her eye. A sudden wave of shame hit her, furnace heat blooming in her cheeks. What would her parents have thought about her little tantrum just now? How juvenile and petty she must look screaming obscenities at the sky as if all her problems could be solved by raging at the clouds and throwing her magic around like a bully. Sighing, the rain pelting the roof of her ice cave reminding her of the frantic tattoo of drums, Elsa put her head in her hands and just breathed.

_What am I doing up here?_ she thought with another inward sigh. _How is this going to help me? Father always said nothing good could ever grow when soil was sown with anger. Maybe I should just—_

The growl came from her left and was felt as much as it was heard. Elsa froze, cold panic trickling down her spine. As incredible as it was, she knew exactly what kind of animal was with her atop the Overlook and spun towards her parents' grave. For the second time that night, she felt the brand on her shoulder explode into painful pins and needles at the same moment the world tipped on its axis. The wolf was massive, easily three times the size of its wild lupine cousins, but it wasn't its size or its presence with her that drained the blood from Elsa's face and set her body to shaking. This particular wolf was made entirely out of ice. Every follicle of fur, every rippling muscle, glittered and winked at her as the beast lowered its head, lips pulled back to reveal finger long, translucent fangs. Elsa swallowed hard, hands instinctively rising in anticipation, mind reeling as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. This creature wasn't one of her creations…was it? No, she'd not made sentient life since Marshmallow. So then where did had this—

The hairs on the back of her neck and arms prickled, the brand on her shoulder flaring with painful heat, as her body became aware of another, unseen presence. Something moved behind her parents' statues, silent was a shadow and a hundred times more menacing. The moment Elsa realized she wasn't alone with just the wolf a set of iridescent gray orbs winked into existence like eyes staring at her from within the shadow of a drawn hood. The entity behind the statues slowly started fading into existence as if it were walking towards her through a fog bank. Slowly, a faint white glow emerged and took shape, and Elsa felt her stomach clench with both abject terror and awe. Her first thought was that it was Saja, but instinct told her otherwise. No, this was something new— something terribly powerful and terribly…cold.

A woman emerged between the statues, a full head and a half taller than the ice sculptures and completely, unashamedly naked. Her long, lean body was white marble made flesh, her waist-length hair freshly fallen snow glittering in moonlight, eyes the steely gray of a seasoned predator. Her beauty was staggering; the smooth planes of her face looked as if they'd been sculpted from glacier ice, but it would have been a fatal mistake for anyone to assume this creature was anything human. There was a fierce, almost savage, quality to her coupled with an alien power that poured from her very person and suffused the air with tingling particles of the purest, deepest winter. It was suffocating, it was consuming; it was power in its rawest, wildest form. The very air froze around her, the driving rain splintering apart somewhere above and twinkling down as nothing more than frozen fractals.

In the fragmented darkness, the storm continuing to rage around them, Elsa could feel her magic twisting and straining under her skin, struggling to be free. And amidst the cacophonous chaos now whirling in her mind, one single, whispered word found its way to the queen's lips like an incantation.

"Snaer."

Ice crusted Elsa's fingernail and turned the ground under her into ashy frost. It took every ounce of concentration to keep her magic in check, and all the while she stared in stupefied awe at the wintery woman who returned her gaze with something of a flat curiosity. It was when the queen's will-ice began climbing her arms again that Snaer canted her head, the edges of her lips twisting up in an eerie smile that never reached her eyes.

A blinding strobe of lightning suddenly lit the Overlook, and Elsa blinked rapidly in an attempt to rid her vision of dancing ghost lights. After a moment, her night vision returned and she jumped back with a startled gasp. The woman had moved in the split second between lightning flash and thunder clap, closing the distance between the two. In a motion almost too fast to catch, her fierce gray eyes flicked towards Elsa's shoulder and a spark of—something— arching across her previously unreadable face. Lightning and thunder volleyed with one another from one second to the next, and with each flash the distance between Elsa and this winter woman, this creature born from a glacier's heart, lessened. A small part of Elsa's subconscious screamed at her to run. Something wasn't right, but she was helplessly paralyzed, locked in place by those unearthly gray eyes and the staggering amount of power suffusing the area. She could feel herself succumbing to the force of that power like a pole being slowly driven into the mud. Her knees weakened, her consciousness splintering into jagged fragments while the brand on her shoulder continued to rage with furnace heat. Twenty feet, ten feet, five feet, and Snaer was reaching for her, long, spindly fingers twitching. Any second now, Elsa anticipated feeling those pale fingers close around her throat and driving her to the ground, but something cut the tension like a pair of scissors through twine.

It was faint, almost swallowed by the raging wind and rain, but Snaer had heard it and so had Elsa. A scream drifting through the darkness, a scream both familiar and terrifying.

"Anna," the queen whispered, and the spell broke. Suddenly, she felt strength return to her legs, felt sanity starting to override the fragmentation of her subconscious. Another scream pierced the night, this one shockingly close. It was Anna again, and Elsa could make out a single, terrified sentence.

_What do you want!?_

"Anna!" Elsa turned and peered into the darkness where she immediately found the glittering golden lights of fire lit windows. Her panic was identical to what she'd felt a year ago when she'd heard Anna being attacked in her room while she slept under the weight of Pabbie's magic. What was happening? Why was Anna screaming? She wanted to run to her sister, wanted to charge down the incline with reckless speed if only her feet weren't—

Elsa was moving before she realized it, her feet following the familiar path down the incline. Startled, she blinked and turned back towards the Overlook and the winter goddess, but neither Snaer nor the wolf was there. Even the ice cavern Elsa had created was gone, the only indication anything out of the ordinary had happened were the patches of frost snaking out from between her parents' statues like eerie footprints. The queen could still feel a presence peering at her from the darkness, could still feel the burn of her brand. She wavered at the edge of the Overlook until a faint growl sent her spinning as she fled into the darkness.

Elsa stumbled a few times coming down the incline, the mud and soaked grass under her heeled feet giving way in sections and threatening to pitch her head over heels into the churning blackness. The rain continued to pelt her mercilessly, thoroughly soaking her clothes and making moving extremely difficult while trying to balance in waterlogged wool and cotton. Frustrated, she threw off her shoes and continued her descent barefoot, toes gripping the mud, but it was only slightly better going. She was still moving too slowly to reach the castle in time to prevent whatever was happening.

_Get to Anna. You have to get to Anna, _she repeated in her head like a mantra, heart hammering like a war drum in her chest. _You're moving too slow! Get to Anna!_

But how? She was moving as fast as she could, stumbling and bumbling like a blind man. Even on a good day descending from the Overlook was a challenge, but this? This was lunacy spiced with just a little bit of suicide. How was she going to reach the bottom? Hands pushing back her soaked hair, she cast about in the darkness for a solution. The idea raced into the forefront of her mind like the shockwave of an exploding star, and all of a sudden she knew exactly what to do.

Magic detonated under her next hard footfall and cascaded down the slope in an icy arch, iridescent gray and white bridging the gap between her and empty darkness. Falling into a familiar fighter's stance that kept her center of gravity low, Elsa planted her feet, leaned back, and slid the final two hundred yards towards the southern parapets. Water stung her eyes; wind roared in her ears and tore at her dress, yet faster she slid, hand trailing the ice ramp behind her like a boat rudder. Reaching the end of the incline, she didn't bother stopping. The hill leveled out and eventually stopped at the southern parapet, but Elsa had enough momentum behind her that once she reached even ground all she had to do was chamber her magic under her feet and release it the second she was within spitting distance of the wall. The guard at the gate gave a startled squawk when Elsa sailed over his head, trailing fractals of ice and frost, and flew over the parapet railing like a bird, arms pin wheeling and legs drawn to her chest. Her landing was less than stellar, her rain heavy clothes putting her off balance and her muddy feet slipping on the wet stone. She had no idea how me managed this maneuver so easily, but Elsa was where she wanted to be and kept running until she reach the door that led into the castle, and still ran once within the safety of its stone walls.

She took the spiral stairs to the residency wing three at a time, lungs burning and legs quivering, bare wet feet sliding on the plush carpet. Rounding the corner and stepping into the hallway, Elsa could see lingering fingers of frost still clinging to the windows and carpet in starts and stops like foot prints. The dread banking in her chest didn't break until she'd thrown open her sister's door and saw Anna standing next to her husband who was attempting to climb into a pair of black pants. Both jumped in unison and turned towards Elsa, mouths agape.

"Um…why are you all wet?" Anna asked brow scrunched with confused concern.

_She safe,_ Elsa exhaled. _Oh thank God, she's safe._

Suddenly, the adrenalin that had driven her here like a team of horses under the lash dissolved, leaving the queen lightheaded and weak in the vacuum of its absence. She opened her mouth to speak and felt the walls of the room close in on her, darkness fuzzing the edges of her vision. She heard Anna say something, maybe asking her another question, but it was far off and muffled. Then the floor suddenly rolled under her and Elsa was falling, the room spinning like a top. She anticipated a jarring impact but instead felt her cheek land against something warm and slightly furry. It took a moment for her to realize someone had caught her and the warmth she was feeling was their skin. Kristoff's face swam into view as he adjusted his grip so that his right arm was around her waist.

_Damn, he's fast,_ Elsa thought with an inward laugh.

"Anna, go tell one of the guards to get Brynja."

"No," Elsa mumbled and shook her head in an effort to clear it. "No, I'm fine."

"You're not fine," Kristoff countered and scooped her up as if she weighed nothing. Rather than taking her to the bed, the mountain man set Elsa down on the long couch in front of the fire, careful to place her head on the arm rest.

"Kristoff, I'm fine," Elsa assured him and instantly wished she hadn't sat up so quickly. Dizziness still clung to her like a drunken lover. Fighting to stabilize her vision, she turned her attention towards Anna who was still standing between the couch and the door. "I heard you screaming. What happened?"

"You— I— Elsa, you really need to…" Anna looked between her husband and her sister, clearly torn as to which to listen to.

It was clearly evident to the queen that something had deeply upset her sister by the way she was twisting the sash of her robe around her fingers. It was a nervous habit Anna had developed as a child that never fully went away. "Anna, what happened?"

"You need to get out of those wet clothes before you get sick," the princess diverted, waving a hand to indicate Elsa's dripping wet body. Kristoff, who had moved off to pull on a shirt, gave her a confused, sidelong glance from across the room as if to ask 'Why are you stalling?'.

"That's not important," Elsa frowned as Anna came to sit on the couch next to her. Clearly she wasn't going to get anything out of her without prying, so she turned to Kristoff instead. "Why was she screaming?"

"Um…I— well—I think Anna should explain. She was the one who saw her…"

"Saw who?" Elsa sat up straighter, pulse quickening. "Who did you see?"

"No one," Anna mumbled and trained her eyes on the fire.

"Anna, you have to tell her what Saja said—"

"_Saja was here?_" Elsa gasped and grabbed her sister by the shoulders a little too roughly. "Anna, you saw Saja? When? How? How did she come to you? Anna, you need to tell me!"

"Alright, alright I'm sorry! I'm trying to figure this out as much as you are!"

Elsa released her hold after realizing how tightly she was gripping her and clenched handfuls of soaked fabric instead. "I'm sorry, Anna. I didn't mean to shout. It's just…" The weight of the previous day was suddenly hanging around her neck again. In all the commotion and desperate rush to get to her sister, Elsa had momentarily forgotten that her lover was being held in a cell a few floors beneath her feet. Her lover the murderer.

"I know this has been one hell of an awful day," Anna said, linking and unlinking her fingers. The princess took a steadying breath before continuing. "I went looking for you after the storm woke me up," she explained, speaking faster and faster, "but you weren't in your room. So, naturally I thought you'd be in the library. But you weren't there either, and it was lightning and thundering, and you know how I don't like thunderstorms. And this one was particularly loud. I…I got a little jumpy and walked past one of the hallway windows and thought I saw you looking back at me." Anna laughed nervously and twisted her fingers into the fabric of her robe.

"But it wasn't you. There wasn't anyone in the hallway with me, so I thought I was going crazy. Brynja said I might get a little crazy in the last few months. Said it's normal for women to feel jittery, and so I just thought it was a side effect, you know? Seeing things and hearing things and feeling things and—"

"Anna," Elsa interrupted and gently cupped the side of her sister's face in order to guide her back on track.

The princess took another large breath and let it out in a rush, realizing she was starting to tremble. "Right, sorry. I thought I saw you in the window, but there wasn't another there. Then the ice started to frost the glass, and I heard someone whisper my name. Yeah, I wasn't about to stick around and see what was there, so ran like hell back here, but something was following me. I screamed for Kristoff to wake up, which he did," Anna shot a quick smile across the room to her husband who returned it with a thin smile of his own, "and then she just…walked out of the mirror."

"Saja came through the mirror?" Elsa frowned, twisting around to scan the room. She found the mirror in the corner sitting on a bed of broken glass. It was a little surprising to see a hatchet imbedded in the ornate wood, and she arched an eyebrow. Kristoff saw her staring at the weapon and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Old habits after living in the wild for so long. I don't sleep without my hatchets," he explained, hurriedly tucking a loose blue tunic into his pants.

"That's….comforting to know. I'll make sure never to startle you in the middle of the night," Elsa said, nodding slowly. "So…Saja came to you? How?"

"She said she was only able to manifest because of the storm. Elsa," Anna suddenly grabbed her sister's hands, a fervent gleam in her sky blue eyes, "I'm so sorry I didn't believe you about her. I didn't know what to think about your dream encounters, but all this time you were right. I'm so, so sorry for not believing."

The queen felt a bit of blush warm her cheeks and nodded. "It's alright. I realize what I was telling you sounded amazingly fantastic."

"Well, there was nothing 'amazingly fantastic' about her. She's spiteful and cold and just a little bit scary."

"What did she say?" Elsa prompted again.

"She said that Revel had a secret we didn't know about. I know," the princess jumped in, seeing the comment forming on her sister's lips, "I told her she was a bit late with her revelation, but she wasn't talking about him being a prince or…or possibly killing his father. She said he was hiding something in his room."

Elsa frowned until her brows were knitted together above her nose and stared into the fireplace. She didn't need to question how Saja had known this. The Frost Born had powers far beyond Elsa's imagination, so it wasn't impossible to believe Saja had known something about Revel and kept it to herself until know. Trouble was what was she talking about? It didn't take much searching for Elsa to recall the strange moment she and Revel had shared while alone in his room.

"It's in his hearth."

"Wait, how did you know?" Anna asked, shocked.

"Just something he did a few weeks ago that stuck in my mind."

"Okay, so we go and find whatever it is he's hiding," Kristoff said coming to stand next to his wife.

"No," Elsa said, rising, cold rain water cascading down her back in tingling rivulets. She really needed to get some dry clothes on for the carpet's sake.

"No? Why no?"

"No as in, not tonight. I just," she searched for the right words but couldn't find them, "I have a feeling tonight isn't a good night. Tomorrow morning at first light."

"That's only a few hours away," Anna said glancing at her window. The storm had almost moved off. There were still a few stray flashes of lightning off in the distance, the rain slowing to a gentle patter against the glass. Seeing the rain brought to mind the first question she'd asked her sister upon seeing her in the doorway, and she asked it again. "Elsa, why are you all wet? Were you on the parapets again?"

"I was out at the Overlook," the queen said quietly as she made her way towards the door.

"You climbed to the Overlook in this weather?" Anna and Kristoff both gaped.

"I did," Elsa smiled mirthlessly. "And I did it in heels too…which are gone now." She flexed her slightly muddy toes and felt grit between the digits. The image of the wintery woman flashed in her mind, and she suppressed a shiver at the thought of the entity she'd encountered and what it meant.

"Did something happen?" Anna tentatively asked seeing the unease in her older sister's eyes at the same moment she unconsciously touched the brand on her shoulder.

Elsa was silent for a long time, her gaze turned inward. When at last she answered, her voice was small and unsure. "You could say that I was not-so-gently reminded that we are small creatures in the vast scope of things, and that forces beyond our control do indeed walk this earth."

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><p><strong>AN:** Hmmmm, indeed, what could be behind those hearth stones? Hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and please, don't forget to review! Review, review, review, I honestly love hearing from you all. Anyway, I want to send a massive shout out to JuneMermaid03 who's been helping me edit. She's done a stellar job fixing my fuck-ups and smoothing the chapter out. She's also started writing fun little side stories that take place within the world of First Time in Never. Please, take a minute and check out her page, read her work, and get some needed Revelsa fixes along the way! u/365377/ Also, this will be the last update for the month. I won't have time to do much writing what with Con next week and my birthday the week after, so you all will just have to wait until July for chapter 18. I would apologize more if I didn't enjoy watching you all squirm so much. XD


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **Well, surprise surprise, I was able to pull a rabbit out of my ass and get this chapter to you all early even though it very nearly killed me! I'd like to thank those of you who wished my a happy B-day last week, and who sent me awesomely flattering messages on tumblr. I love you all; you're all amazing, and I'm honored to have friends and fans that are so thoughtful and ravenous! XD Also, massive shout out to Junemermaid03 and Frozen-fractals211 who have pretty much taken over my edits. You guys did a bang up job getting it read and fixed. Love you both!

One Final thing: I feel I need to post a warning for this chapter and those to come. We will be seeing much more language, violence, and gore as the story folds to a close, and this chapter is the start. Graphic language to follow. I don't apologize for my work or word choice, there are writers out there far more colorful than me, but I thought I'd give you all fair warning.

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><p>Five hours crawled by at a snail's pace, each minute dragging on for an eternity. Elsa had returned to her room and changed out of her soaking wet clothes but didn't exchange them for anything resembling sleepwear. Instead, she slipped on one of her sparring ensembles: coal gray tights, navy blue fencer's top, black suede vest, and paced the length of her room. Every so often she'd glance over at her bed, wondering if perhaps getting a few snatches of sleep would help in some way, but then she remembered her encounter at the Overlook, Anna's meeting of Saja, and the cryptic message the Frost Born had given her sister, and whatever fatigue she felt dissolved.<p>

"It's in his hearth," Elsa had told Anna back in her room, shocking the princess. Yes, something important was hidden in Revel's room, but God only knew what that was — well God and Saja, apparently. What could he have stashed away that could clear him of a murder charge — one conveniently backed up by the Asham king and his champion, which was amazingly beneficial to their case. Who would question either of their stories? Who would think twice about checking into where Adrek or Fritz was that night. No, Elsa knew she was missing a massive piece of the puzzle, and it galled her to no end. Back and forth she walked, fingers twitching at her side as she juggled a small snowflake along the tops of her knuckles unconsciously. Was Adrek the killer or Fritz….or Symon? She shook her head, crossing him off her mental list. Symon was third in line for the throne, so it wouldn't make sense for him to only kill his father. That would immediately elevate Adrek to the status of king, solving nothing. But if it were Adrek, why would he kill his father? He was the first born of the Spezerei family. Yes, removing his father from power would ensure him the kingdom, but what motives did he have? Round and round she went, her analytical mind tearing apart each scenario.

It all boiled down to what Revel had hidden in his room.

_Of course this could all come down to the sad fact that Revel really did kill his father._

Yes, that cold probability plagued the queen more than the others. Revel could very well be the culprit, and she was just too stubborn and too emotionally compromised to accept it. She mulled her encounter with him in the dungeon over and over again, analyzing all the points she could pick out where he lied outright. It just didn't make sense. His stories didn't line up, he was forgetting key elements, and was far too willing to admit to ending his father's life. No, Revel was hiding something, and again it all came down to whatever was in the hearth. Glancing at the clock, Elsa groaned and rubbed her tired eyes, suddenly wishing she'd at least attempted to catch a few moments of rest. Sunrise would be in another hour, which meant Kristoff and Anna would be knocking on her door any second.

Sitting down in front of her vanity with a deflating sigh, Elsa set about arranging her hair in a tight braid. She didn't know why, but somehow having her hair contained seemed like a good idea for what could take place today. Her fingers working deftly, she managed to weave her long platinum locks into a compact braid which she later decided would better suit her needs in a bun. It felt good to give her hands something to do, but after years of doing her own hair, she finished too quickly and was once again left with nothing to occupy her time aside from her tumultuous thoughts. Through her large triangular window, she noticed the sky lightening, a faint sliver of gray warming the blackness on the horizon line. At about the same time she rose from her seat, there was a soft knock at her door that released a nervous burst of frost from her hands. It was far too early to be any of her castle staff, so Elsa opened the door without preamble for her sister and Kristoff. They took in her choice of attire with a quick glance before ducking into her room like children preparing to do the worst kind of mischief.

"Did you get any sleep?" Anna asked with a sheepish smile.

"Not a wink," Elsa replied, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

"Me either." Anna sank heavily into her sister's vanity chair, hands resting atop her swollen stomach and legs outstretched. "So, now that we're all here and accounted for, what's the plan?"

She wouldn't tell her sister this, mostly because she was afraid of being written off as being too impractical, but Anna had been contemplating ideas of how they would sneak into Revel's room unseen and undetected. They would either: slide around the courtyard playing shadow jump while trying to evade the patrolling guards, rappel from the parapet closest to the guard tower roof, or throw a grappling hook from the parapet and swing through his window. Since the princess was heavy with child, her fitting through a narrow anything would be impossible, but Elsa could if she was willing.

"I don't think I need to explain that subtlety and stealth are key," Elsa said, sitting on the edge of her bed and lacing up a pair of black shin high, calf skin boots.

It was strange watching the queen arrange herself in such…practical attire. All her life, Anna had only ever seen Elsa in skirts and dresses. It was part of being a royal that had always grated the princess's nerves. Always prim and proper, always manicured and clean. She was told time and time again to look her best, and always Anna had found a way to skirt that rule or blatantly break it. Mud puddles, hay bales, horseback riding, lake swimming, climbing, jumping, running — anything that went against the grain of her upbringing, but her sister was another matter. Elsa was the picture of royal etiquette, forever poised, forever the elegant queen. Even when she was dressed down for comfortable lounging she wore clothing that could be considered dignified. So seeing her sister don clothing that could, at a glance, be even remotely considered masculine was a shock. The clothes still held her figure, Elsa didn't wear anything that wasn't fitted to her specific measurements, but she looked like a woman who meant business, a woman who would gladly raise her fists along with her voice if the situation called for it.

_All this time I've completely missed these subtle changes in her,_ Anna thought as she watched Elsa from her seat._ She's not the same woman she was three years ago, or a year, or even a couple of months. It's like she's lost a part of herself and gained something new._

The gravity of Anna's understanding hit her particularly hard. Despite having to grow up much faster than any child should, Elsa had always retained a portion of her childlike innocence. It was buried deep and only available to those most trusted, but the princess could see that some of that incorruptible purity, that lighthearted playfulness had been stripped away and the raw material beneath hardened. Perhaps it was because of her sessions with Revel, perhaps it was because of his betrayal, perhaps it was a form of inner strength manifesting in strange ways. Whatever it was, it made Anna nervous because she couldn't predict what her sister was going do like she could in the past.

"Kristoff and I will travel through the secret passage in my room to the stables. By now, the stable master will have risen and begun his daily chores which will temporarily take him out of the building for about an hour. We'll—"

"Wait, wait, _just _you and Kristoff?" Anna interrupted with a frown. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You're to wait here," Elsa said evenly, fixing her sister with a direct stare that told her she would not tolerate any arguments. But Anna wouldn't be Anna if she didn't balk at being told what to do.

"But I can help!" the princess exclaimed, struggling to push herself out of her chair. She had to pinwheel her arms in order to stay balanced which didn't help her case.

"I need you to stay here and keep watch for Gerda. If she shows up before we get back, tell her I had a rough night and will be up shortly. That will buy us some more time."

"So I'm pretty much being left behind to guard the fort," Anna pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Come on, love, it's not like that," Kristoff said gently and pulled her into a hug which Anna shrugged off.

"You don't need to coddle me," she huffed.

"I just want you safe, that's all," the mountain man said with a defeated sigh. "Saja warned us that there might be someone watching, and I don't want anything to happen to you or the babies."

"_Babies?_" Elsa turned slowly towards the two, confusion written all over her face. "Who said you're having more than one?"

"Saja," Kristoff and Anna said in unison. It was the latter of the two who spoke next. "She put her hand on my stomach and said she felt two heartbeats. So yeah, surprise! You're going to be an aunt twice!"

"Oh my sweet Lord, I'm not prepared for this," Elsa groaned, putting a hand against her forehead. A quick glance at the steadily lightening sky pulled her thoughts away from her sister's double pregnancy and put it back on track. She could deal with that sucker punch later. "Ok, we need to go. Anna, please stay here and cover of us. We'll be back as soon as we've found whatever Revel has hidden in his room."

"Alright, fine. I'll be here," Anna said with a dramatic sigh and took a seat on the edge of her sister's bed. Elsa found and pressed the hidden button, the bookcase dislodging from the wall with an audible hiss and swinging open on well-oiled hinges. Kristoff pecked his wife on the cheek one more time before stepping through the portal and closing the bookcase behind him. Left alone in silence, the princess lasted a whole five minutes before she growled in irritation and slid off the end of the bed and headed towards the door.

"Stay behind and cover the fort," she grumbled beneath her breath as she locked her sister's door from the inside and stepped out into the hall. "Despite popular opinion, I'm not a useless member of this group. Whatever, you all go play spies; I've got better things to do. Like play inquisitor."

A crooked smile was quickly creeping across Anna's face as she stealthily slid through the castle hallways with practiced ease and made her way towards the dungeon. She wasn't kidding about her role as inquisitor. Elsa might have gotten nothing useful out of Revel, but she was determined to crack this mystery wide open on her own, hearth secret or not.

* * *

><p>Kristoff and Elsa descended the narrow staircase hidden within the walls of the castle in relative silence. He asked her a few questions regarding the nature of these passages and if she knew of any more save for this one. Elsa answered honestly and told him she knew of a few on the lower level but hadn't been aware there were any snaking through the residency wing. However, she made a mental note to begin checking after the craziness she was currently embroiled in ended.<p>

During their nightly discussions, Revel had told Elsa all about the passage and where it led. This one split off into three directions: the royal bedchambers, the stables, and a small crawlspace behind the kitchen. He had surmised it had been created in the event the castle ever came under attack and the royal family was forced to flee in secret or hide. Curious to see for herself, Elsa had Revel show her where the switch was and prowled the cramped, damp passage one evening. It was with this knowledge that she led Kristoff at a fairly good clip down a sloping set of stairs that branched off twice before opening into a tiny four foot by eight foot antechamber. The wall before them was a smooth piece of chiseled granite devoid of decoration or mark. The only thing that broke the evenness of the stone was a small round porthole at head height. Elsa approached the porthole and threw aside the metal lid to peer through. After a brief pause, she reached out and pressed a nondescript brick to her left. The sound of rolling tumblers filled the silence before the door quietly swung open, a sliver of light piercing the gray gloom.

Elsa emerged from the passage first and double checked if the coast was clear before waving Kristoff forward. The mountain man gently pushed the door closed with his shoulder and followed the queen into the stables. It was early enough some of the horses were still asleep, and a quick glace into Sven's stall revealed that he was snoozing as well, a content Olaf nestled against his best friend's stomach like a child who had fell asleep against the family dog. Elsa saw this too and smiled warmly at the little snowman. Out of all the things she'd created in her lifetime, which wasn't much, Olaf was her greatest and most personal creation. He was a part of her: the innocent, incorruptible, trusting, loving part of herself she'd kept bottled up inside for thirteen years. But it was more than that. Olaf was family as much as Sven or Kristoff or Anna, and the queen felt a twist of guilt for not having spent a lot of time with him these past few months. Her world had pretty much been taken over by Revel and the Summit, so what light did that shed on her character? Was she so capably skilled at shifting people out of her life when they became inconvenient? What did that mean she was going to do once Anna gave birth? What relationship would suffer then?

_When all this is said and done, I'll take him to my ice castle, and we'll visit Marshmallow together. _

Pulling her eyes away from the sleeping snowman, Elsa hurried to the stable doors and peeked out to be sure no patrol guards were making their circuit near them. The wide courtyard was devoid of people, gray dawn slowly driving the shadows back.

"It's a straight shot to the guard tower. Keep close," Elsa whispered over her shoulder, keeping her eyes out for guards. It wasn't that she couldn't be seen. This was her castle and she could damn well walk around it whenever she pleased, but Saja's warning stuck like a knife between her shoulder blades. Someone was watching, someone who wanted Revel dead. If whoever was keeping an eye on the castle saw the queen and her brother-in-law walking blithely into the guard tower they could get nervous and possibly do something rash. The same could be said if they were caught sneaking in, but Elsa was willing to bet she had the upper hand at the moment and would rather keep her advantage by not being seen.

"Following you," Kristoff responded from behind her.

Ducking out the door and sliding into the first deep shadow, the queen and mountain man quickly picked their way to the tower, jumping from shadow to shadow. Elsa briefly reflected that this was a game better suited for someone like Anna. Her sister had been the mischievous one while growing up. Oh, the queen wasn't devoid of fun or mischief; she still recalled the trouble she and her sister had gotten into before the accident drove a wedge between them. Gerda had had her hands full, but right now Elsa felt that Anna would make this whole process a little less…awkward.

Regardless, the two made it into the tower unseen. Elsa locked the door behind them, throwing both the primary lock and the security bolt. She didn't want any surprise visitors while she and Kristoff worked.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" he asked, following Elsa towards a door on the right hand side of the room.

"No," she admitted. "Revel looked towards his hearth that night, and Saja said to look there, but what we're looking for is still a mystery. I guess we'll have to…" She trailed off as the door to his room swung open, fully revealing the devastation beyond the threshold in all its gut-wrenching glory. Revel's room had been ransacked. No, that was a kind word for what had been done to it. Destroyed or obliterated, those were better descriptions.

"What the hell?" Kristoff breathed, eyes slowing taking in the demolished quarters. It looked like someone had taken an axe to everything, hacking and chopping until there was nothing left but piles of splinters heavily dusted with fine white feathers from the slashed mattress.

Elsa moved into the room with apprehensive caution, careful where she placed her feet. Feathers curled and skittered away as she moved about, hands opening and closing as agitated frost crept across her skin. Who had done this? She hadn't the foggiest idea. It could have been Adrek or Fritz; it could have been a jealous guard or even Sigmund, but it was apparent whoever had overturned Revel's room had been looking for something. His tall dresser was a splintered mess, his clothes lying strewn across the floor. The bed had been the next piece of furniture to fall prey to the thief's blade, the mattress hacked open and almost all the feathers torn out leaving behind a sad sack devoid of form. It was like looking at a deflated water skin. Pots and pans were everywhere, anything clay smashed to pieces on the floor and anything metal dented from being thrown at the walls.

_So whoever was in here had a temper. Interesting,_ Elsa thought with detached reason. Yes, whoever was in here definitely had a temper. There was no need to dent perfectly good cookware; there was no need to break chairs or the legs off of tables. This was purely a spiteful move that spoke volumes to the queen, and it just reaffirmed her suspicions.

Half way across the room, Elsa realized she was looking at the high window above the splintered remains of Revel's writing desk apparently expecting to see something there. It suddenly dawned on her that her snowflake was missing. It shouldn't have meant anything, Revel could have removed it weeks ago, but somehow its absence put a knot in her stomach. Looking down at her feet, she crouched and waved away a cluster of feathers, eyes searching for the familiar glint of her ice.

"Did you find something?" Kristoff inquired from the doorway, clearly nervous about entering. Elsa didn't answer at first, just stared stupidly at the broken snowflake in front of her.

_It was made out of will-ice. They couldn't have broken it…there was no—_

There was a way, she knew what it was, and her stomach bottomed out. Gently, she picked up the two halves and held them up in the weak light with a slight tremble in her fingers.

_It broke because I lost faith in him. My will to love him broke, and so did my ice._

It was true. She'd made Revel that snowflake as a gift with a more personal flair. It had been a token, like the snowflake cufflinks he'd worn to the Summit ball, but far less obvious. Sure, at the time they hadn't been together as a couple, but she'd thought of him as something more than a close friend and wanted to give him a personal gift. Now, however, that gift sat cradled in her hands like a broken promise and she blinked back tears. Pocketing the snowflake, because she couldn't bring herself to mend it until she pulled back the final layer and revealed the truth of the situation she was in, Elsa motioned for Kristoff to enter, and the two approached the hearth.

"Do you think whoever did this found what they were looking for?" Kristoff asked, hunkering down onto his haunches.

"It's hard to say what they were looking for exactly," Elsa mused, kneeling down beside him and pressing her left palm against the worn stones at the back of the hearth. Revel's cooking area, like so many others, was a plain oval shaped hearth with a shallow belly made up of mortared stones. In this case, the stones were reddish orange bricks, which wasn't uncommon. The red orange pattern alternated from one to another in no particular order making finding whatever anomaly Saja and Revel knew about damn near impossible without tearing out the wall. Somehow, Elsa knew that doing that would just be a waste of time, and time was something she didn't have an abundance of at the moment. She had a two hour window before her meeting with King Adrek resumed; meaning she had to find whatever was hidden here before then if she wanted to scrape together any chance of keeping Revel in Arendelle permanently. Sighing, she slid her palm along the stones but felt nothing out of the ordinary.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she confessed in a small voice, eyes fixed on the stones.

"We're sure it's here and not somewhere else in the room?" Kristoff pressed, scooting closer to the back of the hearth and squinting at the bricks.

"You were the one who heard Saja's message, not me."

"Good point," he conceded and continued to squint. After a moment, Elsa turned to him and arched an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking at something…" Kristoff muttered and pulled a small knife from his boot. Gently, he tapped the mortar lines on the right hand side, turning his head so he could better hear the sound the blade tip made against the stones.

"I can see that, so what are you doing now?"

"An old ice trick I learned during my first years of harvesting. Young harvesters are taught to feel the ice with all of their senses, and hearing was a very important one," the mountain man explained tapping the lines again, concentration creasing his brow. "We were taught that, if you were unable to get a good depth reading on a patch of ice, it sometimes required a practiced ear. We were given long sticks with knobs at the end and taught where to gently strike the ice to hear the depth echo. On more solid ice, you could put your ear directly on the surface and tap. If there was an air pocket under you, it would sound hollow, therefore telling you to mark that patch as unsafe and move away. If it was solid there wasn't an echo."

"That's a really ingenious way of safety," Elsa admitted with a fair amount of surprise in her voice. It wasn't that she thought the ice harvesters were dumb individuals who recklessly harvested vast amounts of ice all year long; she just wasn't well versed in the process and steps of harvesting. When you could conjure pure, flawless ice with the wave of a hand, learning how people mined it seemed trivial somehow. Suddenly, she was immensely glad she'd brought Kristoff along.

The queen's brother-in-law worked his way across the hearth, tapping the bricks with his knuckles while poking the mortar with his knife. It was slow, tedious work that eventually paid off forty five minutes later when his knuckles rapped against an orange brick and he heard the unmistakable sound of air trapped beneath. A few swift pokes with his knife revealed that the mortar around this particular brick was especially thin as if it had been redone after the hearth had been installed in the wall.

"I think," Kristoff said picking at the mortar, "I've found our dear captain's hiding place."

Elsa edged forward and conjured a wedge of ice that she immediately hardened into a super fine, super tough pick. Together, she and Kristoff made quick work of the gray mortar, but it was Elsa who managed to wiggle the brick out of the wall because she had smaller fingers. Not surprisingly, the mountain man had been right, the brick was hollow and inside was a leather sleeve the size of her hand. Gently, the queen eased the bundle out and opened it, discovering a small piece of rolled paper stamped with a broken red wax seal. She instantly recognized it as the seal of Asham, but it was different somehow. The symbols were arranged differently and the falcon, which currently adorned the Asham seal, was missing. In its place was a pair of crossed swords with a burning crown hovering above.

"What is it?" Kristoff asked eagerly, stowing his knife back into his boot.

Fingers trembling, Elsa unrolled the parchment and stared at the neat lines of scrawling handwriting. In the predawn gloom she could only make out a few words and exhaled through her nose in mild irritation. "I need some light."

"Here, I think there's a candle around here somewhere…." He searched around his feet for a moment, hands sliding along the feather dusted floor. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed holding aloft a single white candle.

"Now we just need some matches," Elsa said, looking skeptically around the destroyed room. Finding one of those in a chaotic mess of this magnitude would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"No need. I have a strike fire," Kristoff smiled broadly and withdrew a piece of flint from his pocket. With some effort from his boot knife, Kristoff was able to set fire to a small piece of dried wood still nestled in the hearth and with it lit the candle.

"You are an amazing wealth of ingenuity," Elsa complemented with a small laugh.

"I have my moments," Kristoff shrugged nonchalantly despite the small amount of blush creeping across the bridge of his nose. "What's it say?"

Elsa returned her gaze to the parchment and began reading. It didn't hit her until she was through with the first paragraph how significant this nondescript piece of paper really was. Half way down the page and she felt her heart slamming against her ribs as if attempting to escape. Three quarters of the way down and the blood had drained from her face and she was shaking, the page wobbling in her trembling hands.

"Elsa…what's wrong?" Kristoff frowned as he watched the queen's face lose even more color, her left hand sliding over her mouth, eyes as wide as saucers. "Elsa?"

Last paragraph and the world abruptly ground for a halt, and the queen idly wondered in a portion of her mind that wasn't reeling how many more times the earth would stop spinning while she fought to unravel this mystery.

"Oh my god," she managed to whisper behind her hand, astonishment warring with cold gripping fear. "Oh…oh my _god_!"

"You're killing me here." Kristoff shifted around so he could see the paper. Though his reading skills were as good as any noble, he had a hard time focusing on the cramped handwriting. "No, seriously. What's going on?"

"Revel he's….he's not a prince."

"What?" he blinked in obvious surprise. "But…but that's impossible! His brother said he was. Why would Adrek say he was—"

"No, Revel's not a prince…_he's a king._" Just saying the words out loud brought on another bout wave of astonishment and dread.

"_What?!_" Kristoff mirrored her reaction perfectly, eyebrows shooting into his hairline at the same moment his mouth dropped open into an astonished "O".

"This is a letter of disinheritance. King Gregor disinherited Adrek because…because he…" No, she wouldn't say it aloud because the implications were too grand and to damning. Elsa needed verification from Kai that this was indeed Gregor's letter. The seal bothered her, but if everything checked out, if it wasn't a forgery, then not only was Revel innocent he was also in stupendously grave danger.

"We have to get this to Kai immediately," Elsa said urgently, jumping to her feet and heading for the door. "Now, Kristoff!" she barked, seeing him still seated on the hearth stones. The mountain man clambered after her, his stunned surprise rising to simmering alarm. If Revel somehow was innocent that meant Saja's warning had even graver implications. It might not just be Revel in danger, it could be the queen as well…or Anna. Suddenly, Kristoff wanted nothing more than to run up to Elsa's room and check on her, but he told himself she was safe behind locked doors. Safe, and protected.

* * *

><p>It was a game to Anna, skulking around the castle like a creeping shadow, outwitting guards and servants at every turn and disappearing without a trace. She'd become a master at it during her youth, honing her skills every day to a razor sharpness until she could practically glide through the hallways and chambers unseen by anyone. It was how she escaped the boredom of cloistered castle life after her parent's locked the doors, shuttered the windows, and turned every member of their family and staff into shut-ins. Day or night, it didn't matter. Anna would purposely hide from her tutors, dodging the guards and housekeepers sent to find her. Each great escape was a new opportunity to find better and more secure hiding places. She knew every nook and cranny, every hidden alcove and secret passage….well, save for the passages in the residency wing. She'd have to check those out later to satisfy her curiosity. As it was, she was about to satisfy something far more pressing.<p>

Unbeknownst to the guards and staff, there wasn't just one way in and out of the dungeon. For whatever reason, the masons who had constructed the castle on the island had thought it a good idea to install a single expertly hidden passage located at the far end of the dungeon. Anna's discovery of it had been a fluke, her hand slipping one day and hitting the trigger in one of the numerous alcoves near the kitchen behind an impressive antique suit of armor. The door was barely three feet across and had to be slid into sideways, making the descent a claustrophobic nightmare not many would want to participate in more than once. Anna, however, had no fear of tight spaces, but her large stomach did make the trek a bit more snug and chafing than she would have liked. Disregarding her discomfort, she made it to the bottom of the steps and groped around in the darkness for the second switch that would open the door on the dungeon side. Her fingertips brushed against a familiar set of raised bumps, and she pressed the release, sliding out of the narrow crack and stepping into the gray gloom of the lower castle.

Arendelle's dungeons weren't all that large. While most castles boasted a sizable holding place for wrongdoers, the island castle had little need for one bigger than two chambers because it had a fully functioning jail across the bridge in town. Six cells in each chamber with two iron holding pens towards the front. That's where she headed, stealthy as a shadow, balancing on the balls of her feet. A quick glance around the final corner confirmed what she'd suspected. Revel was in the cage to the left of the door and there wasn't a guard in sight.

_Perfect._

In five entirely silent strides, the princess was at the edge of the cage furthest from the door. She attempted to crouch and make herself as small as possible, but her swollen stomach wouldn't permit such acts. Instead, Anna opted to lean against the wall, arms folded across her chest. Revel sat atop the cement rise that acted as a crude bed, legs folded under him and head resting against the wall behind him. She took in his disheveled appearance, his grimy clothes, the cuts on his face, the blackening bruises, and felt a stab of both indignation and sadness. In the three years Anna had gotten to know the former captain, she'd seen him in action only a handful of times. Usually, it was while he was on duty. He'd be called to break up a fight or chase down a thief in the market, but every time he went into action, without fail, Revel always treated the perpetrator with respect. Even if they were swearing and spitting and kicking, he'd do everything in his power to make sure they were taken to the town's holding cells without unnecessary molestation.

"If we can't respect the citizens of our own kingdom," Revel had explained to Anna while he nursed a particularly nasty bloody nose after a sneak thief sucker punched him, "how can we expect them to respect us? The guards and the people work hand in hand. We help them and protect them and they in turn do the same for us by aiding us in the capture of criminals."

"Yeah, but he punched you in the face! You would have been justified punching him back!" Anna rebutted, handing him another clean strip of gauze for his nose.

"I could have easily knocked him unconscious," Revel admitted with a slight nod. "But what message would I be sending the people had I beaten a sneak thief into unconsciousness just because I overestimated my odds and wound up getting punched? I'd look like a bully."

Anna hadn't been able to argue with him and wound up nodding in agreement. That had been the moment she truly began to see that Revel was something special. Sure he had his faults, everyone does and he wasn't an exception, but the former captain worked every day trying to be a man the people of Arendelle could look to as a worthy protector. So seeing him sitting in this cell, dirty and bloody, banked a fire in Anna's blood. Revel would never have been so rough with a prisoner. Ever. Apparently, his way of thinking wasn't as popular with the other castle guards as the princess thought. His eyes were closed, but Anna knew better than to assume he was asleep. Still, just to be polite, she cleared her throat softly and waited.

"I was wondering when you'd do that," Revel said quietly, eyes still closed.

"You heard me coming?" Anna frowned, a little crestfallen. She'd hoped, just this once, to be able to surprise him.

"No," Revel smiled faintly and opened his eyes, "I just didn't hear the door open, so I figured it was either you or your sister. You've definitely gotten quieter. I think pregnancy has done wonders for you."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, this is absolutely a blast. I love walking around like I have a cannon ball in my gut."

"It will be worth it in the end when you have a little one cradled in your arms, I promise."

"Little ones," Anna corrected and moved a little closer. "Saja told me I was having two."

Revel looked genuinely surprised by her statement and slowly uncurled, setting his bare feet down on the cold stones. "You saw Saja?"

"It's a really….really long story that I'll get to in a minute. But first, I want to know why you're still here."

"Where on earth would I go?" Revel asked with a dry chuckle.

"I meant, why are you still in this cell?"

"Because I belong here."

His answer was simple and given so matter-of-factly Anna felt a flush of heat work into her face. "No, you belong with the rest of us. You belong with my sister."

"I think I'm the last person your sister wants to see at the moment," Revel said with a defeated sigh. "She came here last night to speak to me and….things did not go over so well."

"Because you both are stubborn asses at times and hurting," Anna pointed out with the same matter-of-fact blandness the former captain had used moments ago.

"Anna, you don't understand—"

"What's hidden in your hearth?"

The question was so sudden and so out of the blue, Revel momentarily lost his ability to form words. He just stared at the princess with open shock written all over his face. "How…how do you know about the hearth?" he managed to ask in a small, scared voice that did little to lessen the princess's unease.

"Saja told me," she shrugged.

"No, Anna, who told you about it?" He was on his feet now, and Anna could see the iron shackles clamped around his wrists for the first time as the chains drug noisily on either side of him.

"You think I'd lie at a time like this?" Anna countered defiantly. "What I said is true. Saja came to me late last night during the thunderstorm. Scared the shit out of me by crawling out of my mirror. God, I'm never going to forget that sight," she shuddered, puffing out her cheeks and blowing out a large breath. At the mention of a mirror, she saw Revel visibly shiver, his eyes trained on the floor as if remembering something. "She warned me that someone was out to kill you, and that whatever you have hidden in your hearth could be the key to saving your life."

"I assure you it will do nothing but end more lives," Revel said weakly.

"What's in there, Revel? Tell me before my sister does."

"Elsa's looking for it?" Alarm now shone in his eyes, making the green stand out like jade stones. Shackled hands raked through his unkempt hair and he swore under his breath.

"Of course she is! Why the hell wouldn't she be? She loves you! God, is that so hard for you to swallow? She's doing everything in her power to save you, and you're making it damn difficult by weighing her down with all this self-pity!"

"None of you understand! I've been keeping you all safe by _hiding_ this secret. The second it's out is the second your peaceful lives end. Anna, please, you both have to stop. I can't keep you two safe if you continue to dig, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost either of you."

"You think you're the first person with a secret who thinks they're doing us all a favor by keeping it to yourself? Gee, wonder what my _sister_ would think about this. It wasn't like she did something _similar_. You know better than anyone that keeping secret doesn't do anything but cause unnecessary pain and trouble."

"This is different, Anna. This isn't a secret like your sister's powers. This is a kingdom killer!"

"All I hear are pointless excuses and blatant bullshit coming from your mouth. What the hell do you think we'd do if we lost you?" Anna retorted, tears stinging her eyes. "You're my friend. Maybe one of my closest. I've not had many of those growing up, but I found one in you. Please, don't give up on us. I love you like a brother, so just…please."

Revel would have said more, would have attempted to comfort Anna and helped ease her into the mindset that she had to let him go, when they simultaneously turned towards the dungeon door. They both heard it at the same time, the unmistakable sound of booted footfalls coming down the stairs. A second later they heard a voice that made their blood run cold for very different reasons.

"Take all the time you need. The queen's already questioned him. Figured it was only a matter of time before someone from Asham got around to it."

"Good man," Fritz said and it sounded like the Asham champion clapped the Arendelle guard on the shoulder. "I'll just be a minute."

"Shit," Revel cursed, quickly looking around as the guard searched for the key to unlock the door, the metal tinkling like tiny wind chimes. "Anna, you have to hide! Now!"

Wasting no time, because the princess could tell by the level of alarm in Revel's voice that this wasn't an arguable matter, she ducked around the first thing she set eyes on which just happened to be a large stack of wooden crates piled across the room from Revel's cell. Due to the volume of tradable and sellable goods flooding Arendelle for the Summit, some of the castles less used parts were turned into mock storage areas, the dungeon included. It was a happy stroke of luck these crates had been placed here. Had they not, Anna would have been forced to run back to the passage and miss an exchange that chilled her to her marrow while simultaneously getting her the answers she'd intended to pry from the former captain. The moment her back was pressed against the crates, a shipment of goods from Corona if she was reading the seal correctly, the guard opened the door and shut it behind Fritz.

"Re-v-el," the champion called in an eerie singsong voice as he emerged from around the corner at a leisurely stroll, his eyes glinting like chips of glass as they raked over the room. He was dressed sharply in a pair of black trousers and boots, burgundy tunic, and a brown, sleeveless leather waistcoat with silver buckles. At his hip swung a weathered scabbard, the sword hilt visibly worn by continuous use. "Oh, Re-v-el. Are you down here?" A beat of silence before a satisfied exhale, "Ah, there you are."

The former captain stiffened, his glare filled with such intense hatred he felt he could have set fire to the distance between himself and the champion. Fritz only grinned, a cat cornering a mouse, and swaggered closer, raising a dark bottle to lips. He drank noisily before wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and sighing contentedly.

"This really is a remarkable vintage. It's funny, I didn't think you had such expensive taste. Oh, heavens forgive me, where are my manners. Would you care for some?" Fritz extended the bottle and shook it at Revel as if he were a dog capable of being coaxed from his hiding place with a bone. He even made kissing noises and wiggled the bottle. "Come on, I know you've had only dirty water to drink, and that must be hell for you. Think of it as a peace offering."

Revel fought to keep his face schooled so that nothing but contempt showed through despite the fact that his heart was racing at a humming bird's pace behind his ribs. Seeing Fritz at a distance during the ball had been like ripping a scab off a wound, but seeing him close up in all his lethal glory was like sticking a brand against that same wound. The mixture of pain and animosity that warred within his blood made the muscles in his jaw began to ache from clenching them so hard. His fingers itched to close around the smug little bastard's throat and slowly choke the life out of him. He'd even rip off his shackles with his teeth and bend the iron bars with his bare hands if it meant getting Fritz in his grip, and when he did, not even God would have the power to pull the two apart. But as it was, Revel was stuck in a cage with a very short leash, so he resigned himself to only glaring while his dark thoughts swirled around his mind like waking nightmares.

"Why the chilly reception?" Fritz withdrew his arm with a pouty pucker of his bottom lip. "I thought you'd be happy to see me! It's been fifteen years, for God's sake." When the former captain continued his steely staring at the champion, a small smile crept into the left corner of Fritz's mouth, pulling at the livid scar that ran horizontally across his face. He slowly approached the iron cage with a predatory gleam in his hazel eyes. "It's good to see you in your rightful place. The fallen prince in his cage of iron… it has a bit of a poetic ring to it doesn't it?"

"What do you want?" Revel growled, brow creasing until the inner tips of his eyebrows very nearly connected over the bridge of his nose.

"Why, whatever would I ever _want_ from you that I couldn't readily _take_? No, I just wanted to come and talk, that's all. Just a friendly chat between men. Well, that might be a bit of a problem seeing as you're less of a man now, aren't you? The fallen prince, Asham's cursed second born, bastard prince, kingkiller…they all sound so pretty, but they really take away from what you really are."

"And what is that?" Revel spat, the itching in his fingers becoming an aggravating buzz.

"A scared little bitch in a nasty iron cage," Fritz said gripping the bars and pressing his face between the small gap. "You're nothing but shit under my boot, and I intend to scrape you off and flick you into the fire. They found the poison you had in your room, just like I said they would," Fritz said matter-of-factly. "There was enough there to kill two people. You know, it really takes a sick man to plan the death of his older and younger brother. I mean, assassinating the king was enough, and we all know your next target was Adrek, but killing Symon? He was just a toddler at the time. What threat could he have possibly been to you?"

"Burn in hell, Fritz."

"Oh, I'm under no disillusion I'm bound for heaven, but I'll see you there." He took another drink from the dark bottle in his hand and it was only when the glass caught in the weak light coming through the narrow windows that Revel saw the distinctive green tint to the glass and felt his pulse freeze. Again the champion smacked his lips appreciatively, turning the bottle so that Revel could see the label.

"This really is a good year and an excellent brandy. I've not seen a Metaxa brandy this old in years. It's a wonder you were able to afford something so…rich…on your guard's salary."

Revel could hear the implication in Fritz's voice and swallowed hard, struggling to keep his mask in place. "Then again, you were always able to get what you wanted. All royals do. Well… that is until now."

The former captain knew what Fritz was doing. He was playing with his food, goading him into retaliation. It was a game, a deadly dance of predator and prey, and one both men were familiar with. Seeing the slightest change in Revel's features, because his unease wasn't so easily hidden from someone who knew what to look for, Fritz smiled a shark grin, teeth abnormally white in the gray gloom.

"Yes, I'm more than positive this little bottle of liquid heaven wasn't something you bought. Oh no. It was given, and I believe I know by whom. Did you think," Fritz began, pacing the length of the small cage while dragging his fingers along the bars, "that I wouldn't notice? You two are good and hiding it, believe me you fooled the rest of those stupid fuckers at the dance, but affection is so easy to spot when you're looking for it. You reek of it, and so does the queen.

"It's an interesting turn of events, I'll give you that. I didn't think you had the balls to chase a monarch, so I'm getting surprised left and right here. But tell me because I'm dying to know," Fritz paused again and leaning in, voice pitched low in a mock whisper and mouth twisted in a gleeful smirk, "when you fucked her did your dick freeze when she came? Is her cunt really as icy as the rest of her? I mean, Christ, talk about playing roulette with your cock!" he laughed sharply, voice echoing in the small chamber, his head thrown back for emphasis.

Revel felt his cheeks begin to burn as rage boiled inside him. "Fuck you."

"Oh ho, ho, so I've hit a sore spot!" Fritz cackled. "Tell me, tell me, when you broke her, because we all know she was tighter than the strings on a banker's purse, did she bleed ice or blood?"

Revel refused to answer, knowing that if he did it would just fuel Fritz's goading as well as being an admission to his relationship with Elsa, but staying quiet was slowly killing him. Especially when a vile troll like the Asham champion was literally dragging his queen and lover's name through the dirt. It took everything in him to keep his mouth shut even though he knew his rage showed in every inch of his rigid body.

"No, she's bleeds like the rest of you royals," Fritz sobered quickly. The change that overtook the champion was starting to witness. He'd always had the ability to flip from one emotion to the next in a seamless transition, usually swinging between vicious humor and stoic seriousness like a pendulum. "And you all bleed like the rest of us. Blood is blood, but you already know that."

"You'd know a lot about bleeding, wouldn't you, you son of a whore. How many stitches did it take for them to close that gash I gave you? Hmm?" Revel mocked, mirroring Fritz with his own brand of tasteless, brutal humor. Sometimes it's better to fight fire with fire. "How many women ran screaming from you—oh wait, that's right. Never mind, I forgot."

For the first time since Fritz had darkened the dungeon with his miasmic presence, the champion's bravado faltered, and Revel caught a glimpse of startled indignation. He'd learned as a young boy that poking a sleeping bear wasn't the best idea, but he was in here and Fritz was out there.

"I fully intend to pay you back for that," the champion seethed, face blushing red. "I'll carve into you slowly."

"Big talk from someone who's as much as a palace bitch as I am. And you called me whipped. There isn't a damn thing you can do right now, Fritz, aside from making an ass of yourself, so why don't you go back upstairs and gawk at the all the pretty servants you can't ever have. Provided your dick still works without your balls being there. Remind me again what it was like having them sliced off. Was it a jerk and a tug or something a little more—"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Fritz exploded and violently threw the bottle of brandy across the room where it shattered to pieces just above the crates Anna was hiding behind. Revel's heart leapt into his throat but he dared not let his eyes linger on the foamy stain slowly dripping down the wall or the glass shards littering the floor. If he did, Fritz could become suspicious, and there was no telling what he'd do to the princess if he found her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hit a nerve?"

"You would do well to shut the fuck up," Fritz spat, gripping the bars until his knuckles turned lily white at the same moment his face flushed a startling scarlet red. "I own you, Revel, remember that. If you think your precious ice whore has the power to keep you from me, she's as stupid as the rest of the cunts who pretend to wear crowns. Your brother's reach is long, but mine is longer. There isn't anywhere you can hide where I can't find you; where I can't hurt you. And if I can't hurt you, I'll hurt those around you. It'll be just like old times."

If it hadn't been for the heat of his rage, the chill of Fritz's words would have been enough to freeze the blood in Revel's veins. The former captain knew exactly what the champion was capable of, knew exactly how skilled he was with knives, and the memory of the day his life had taken a drastic turn rose into his consciousness like a festering wound he'd been neglecting to clean.

"But I can make sure nothing happens to your lover or her family. All you have to do is tell me where you've hidden the letter, and I'll leave."

"What makes you think I still have it?" Revel distantly heard himself retort. He'd meant to sound more sure of himself, like he knew all the hands being played, but Fritz's blatant threat still ripped at his mind.

Fritz snorted contemptuously. "Please, that letter was the only trump card you had, so I know it wasn't something you just up and misplaced. I've been through your room and your office, so don't bullshit me. Where is it?"

"You're so quick to assume that I got rid of it. What if the queen has it in her hands right now?"

The champion's face darkened, and there was a promise of ruthless, merciless pain in his tumultuous hazel eyes. The silence that followed was life itself balanced on a knife's edge. Fritz stared at Revel, clearly weighing the former captain's words carefully and daring him to recant his comment. When it became clear the Revel would not balk, the Asham champion slowly nodded as if coming to some internal decision and stepped away from the cell.

"For her sake, I hope you're lying," he said, straightening his jacket with casual nonchalance.

"Who's to know? Guess you'll just have to find out," Revel remarked with a forced shrug.

Fritz's expression, for half a heartbeat, was placid, perhaps even a shade contrite, but the moment passed and before Revel's eyes the champion slid into a familiar role—a lethal role—that brought on a gleeful glint. "It would be such a tragedy for Arendelle to lose another ruler too soon. We wouldn't want a repeat of your father's death now would we? Just remember, Revel, we all bleed the same," he said, turning slowly towards the door, clearly done for the time being. Before he disappeared down the short hallway, the champion half turned and fixed Revel with one more cold stare. "If what you say is true, she'll gurgle just like your father did when I slit his throat." To drive his point home, Fritz pantomimed cutting his own throat with his thumb, dragging the digit slowly over his Adam's apple, shark tooth grin spreading across his face. Then he was gone, disappearing into the shadows like a nightmare.

It was several agonizing seconds before Revel could move again, the paralysis steadily crawling up his legs making it difficult for him to walk. It was only when Anna reemerged from behind the crate, her face such a waxy pale she looked like a specter, that the former captain remembered she'd been present for the whole exchange. She'd heard everything and the weight of such dark knowledge weighed heavily on her.

"Well…now you know," Revel managed after a fragile silence. It was a pitiful thing to say and on the caliber of shrugging off a major tragedy as a mere accident. _Yes, well, I'm sorry you had to learn the truth straight from the horse's mouth. Terrible, really. Quite awful. Looks like he means to kill your sister now. Apparently, I should have listened to reason and told you all this months ago. Too bad I'm locked in here. Well, have a nice day._

Anna looked like she was about to become physically sick. She steadied herself on one of the crates, her blue eyes wide and trained on the floor as she fought to absorb the overflow of information. Not surprisingly, she mastered herself quickly and straightened, her natural resilience snapping back in place. The burn of slowly spreading dread had somehow been snuffed for the moment and had been replaced with determination.

"Tell me the truth, right now. Did you kill your father?" she demanded in a quivering voice.

"No," Revel replied hollowly, his words meaning nothing because he knew better, but he'd lie for Anna's sake. Especially after she'd heard…well everything.

"Did you plan to kill your brothers?"

"No." The truth this time. Despite their differences, Revel never wished his brother's any ill will, but apparently the sentiment wasn't a shared one in Adrek's case.

"Do you love my sister?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation or calculation. This was a question he would always answer in truth.

"Then make sure you're ready an hour after sunset," Anna said and turned sharply towards the secret passage.

"Wait, ready for what?"

This time, when Anna turned back to him, Revel was startled to see such livid rage etched into the lines of the princess's beautiful face and coloring the delicate, freckle dusted skin just under her eyes. She wasn't a creature meant to harbor such volatile emotions in her body, and the transformation was heart stopping. Stomping back to his cell, Anna planted herself in front of him like a mother confronting a petulant child.

"If I need to spell this out for you then you're more of a fool than I thought. You're the captain of the royal guard. Your sworn purpose in life is to protect the queen. 'Jeg sverger på mitt liv som jeg vil gi mitt liv for å beskytte både dronningen og kongerike. Dette har jeg sverger før mennesket og Gud. Denne I bind i blod,'" Anna spat, reciting the guard's oath as if she were taking bites out of it and spitting it back at him. "'I swear on my life, I would give my life, to protect both queen and kingdom. This I swear before man and God. This I bind in blood.' That's what you said fifteen years ago, and you will fulfill that oath! Not because you swore it before God himself, but because you love my sister. She's yours, Revel, as much as you're hers, and if I have to remind you of your love for her one more time, I swear to God I'll kill you where you stand and put us all out of our misery! Time to pull your head out of your ass and be the man my sister fell in love with, not the sniveling prince standing in front of me."

And with that Anna left the dungeon to plan. She didn't have a lot of time, didn't have a lot of resources readily available or people she could trust, but damn it she was going to try. After all, why else would there be another entrance into the dungeon unless it was to smuggle someone out?

* * *

><p>He watched her leave the dungeon in seething silence, his mind slow to process the princess's words. After a moment, Revel sat down heavily on his makeshift bed and put his head in his hands. It had been a long time since he'd felt this lost before. Even when he'd realized he was falling in love with the queen, the former captain had had some semblance of an idea of how to move and act, but now? There was so much at stake; so much that could go wrong; so much he could lose. And to make matters worse, like spreading venom over an open sore, Fritz was here and on the hunt.<p>

The champion's threat echoed in Revel's mind like a dark church bell, and those echoes stirred the previously placid pond of his memories, dredging up muck and blackness from his past he had no wish to relive. In the silence of his cell, with only his shadow and the occasional rat for company, Revel relived that night over and over again as the day wore on like he had for more than a decade. It wasn't like he could have forgotten even if he wanted to. Those fleeting moments had been branded into his mind, seared behind his eyeballs, and could be recalled with such startling clarity Revel almost convinced himself he was reliving it again.

It had been a Thursday that the assassination happened. Young Revel, freshly fifteen and bored to death with his studies, had dodged his tutors again, sneaking out of the palace in order to watch the guards train at their barracks beyond the castle walls. He'd opted to climb the ivy this time, testing his strength and dexterity like his guard friends had taught him. The city below the castle was just settling down for the evening, windows shimmering in the distance like golden stars. Revel remembered lingering atop the wall, the ivy leaves cool under his palms, and stared contentedly out over his kingdom. He knew he was going to get grief from his father and tutor when he finally returned to the castle; usually, he received an ear full of loud blustering from the king complete with half-hearted threats about locking him in his room for a month and placing a five guard detail on him whenever he left for lessons. It was all just posturing. King Gregor had a soft spot for his children and could never stay angry with them for long. Still, the risk and consequence was worth it if he was able to spar with the guards some more, honing his less than stellar skills at swordplay and archery. After all, what good was a prince if he couldn't properly swing a sword or join in the royal hunt? Isn't that what all the princesses looked for in a suitor? Well, that's what Adrek had told him anyway.

With an excited exhale, Revel jumped from his perch and ducked into the alley that would take him to the barracks. His friends were waiting, as usual, and together they dove into another rough lesson centered on footwork and proper parrying and thrusting. It wasn't until the sun had sunk low behind the horizon and the nearly pregnant moon had risen high into the sky that Revel took his leave and sauntered back to the castle with as much swagger as his bruised shins and thighs would allow. The guards hadn't gone light on him tonight, and he'd most likely sport some impressive bruising in the morning.

_Trophies I can show off to Adrek,_ he thought with a smug smile. His older brother had been permitted to learn swordplay, one of the many perks of being first born and heir to the throne, but didn't have the knack for it like he and Fritz did. Adrek was fonder of grappling and could wrestle well enough. More often than not, he could be found rolling around the sparring grounds with Fritz, the two almost evenly matched. Adrek had size on his side and could often times overpower him, but Fritz was lean and wiry which gave him a slight advantage. Thinking about the bastard son of the late Baron Drescher put a sour taste in Revel's mouth. It wasn't that he openly disliked Fritz….there was just something off about him. The fact that he was a bastard meant nothing to a fifteen year old royal who's main concern was sneaking around the castle and dodging his princely duties. Fritz couldn't help were he came from, which apparently wasn't from a kind home. The fact that his stepmother had disowned him the day after the Baron died spoke volumes about how the family viewed their resident bastard. There was also a rumor that the Baroness harbored such a dark hatred for her husband's illegitimate child she'd gone as far as having Fritz castrated in the belief that, without his testicles, he wouldn't have the urges of infidelity like his father had. It was all rather a said affair, but regardless, Revel couldn't shake the feeling that Fritz was something more than just a Baron's bastard. He shoved those thoughts from his mind as he climbed the ivy again and slipped back into the castle courtyard unseen and unheard as usual.

Revel's passage of choice for his phantom-like disappearing acts was though a secret passage hidden in the wall between a panel in the ballroom and the kitchen attached to it. Almost invisible to the untrained eye, it had been engineered for unobtrusive servants to entrance and exit from the ballroom without disturbing guests but had gone unused for years. Apparently, guests disliked servants appearing seemingly out of thin air and preferred them coming and going through the main entrance, so King Gregor had sealed the passage…or so he thought. Leave it to a bored kingdom heir to find that switch and later unseal the passage for his own mischievous use.

When Revel padded silently into the quiet kitchen and slid around a tight corner that opened to a set of short stairs, he was surprised to find the passage standing ajar, a streak of gray light slicing through the darkness. His wary curiosity quickly morphed to arresting concern when he realized the passage was being propped open by what looked like to be a leg. Reason left him, and young Revel quickly pulled open the passage door and let out an anguished cry when he saw who was lying at his feet in a pool of dark blood.

"Father!" he shouted and went down on his hands and knees, blood soaking into his trousers and boots. It was everywhere, and anywhere he touched or placed his hands only smeared the sticky substance further and spread it all over him. The king was a gory mess, shimmering black crimson staining his fine blue doublet and tailored leather vest. Veins of blood ran for the corner of his slightly slack mouth and spilled into his salt and pepper hair like gory flowers in bloom. Frantically, Revel went to search for a pulse but snatched his hand back when he saw the open wound stretching across the king's throat like a gruesome smile, and he felt his stomach lurch seconds before he vomited into his hands. Without realizing it, Revel had smeared his father's blood across his face, the irony tang lingering on his tongue even after he'd vomited for a second time. Staggering unsteadily to his feet, Revel felt himself screaming but couldn't hear or understand the words coming from his mouth. He assumed it was a cry for help, but it could have just been indistinguishable noise for all he knew. His sanity was starting to fray at the edges the longer he stared down at the still warm corpse of his father. Revel realized with another violent roll of his stomach that his father's throat hadn't just been slashed. Six stab wounds peppered Gregor's broad chest, each one three inches wide, and to make matters worse the dagger used to kill him was still imbedded in the king's torso.

_That…that's my dagger?_ Revel thought, mind moving as slow as cooling molasses. _But I always keep it on me…_

He reached around to his right where his dagger usually hung and was shocked to find it gone. Something else in the chamber caught his attention, and the fear that was slowly creeping up his legs, slowly paralyzing him, turned to cold dread. There was another large puddle of blood in the center of the ballroom with a long bloody drag mark sweeping away from it. King Gregor had been attacked in the center of the room and drug to this passage…but why? Why would an assassin even bother to hide the body? Why would—

"Revel, what the fuck have you done?!"

Revel spun around, heart in his throat. He knew that voice, and instantly went on the defensive as Fritz emerged from the shadows, white with shock. "Fritz—I—please, we have to get the physician! Please, he's—"

"You son of a bitch, you killed him!" the Baron's bastard shouted, stumbling back. "That's your dagger in his chest!"

"No!" Revel implored raising his hands and realized too late that they were covered in blood. He tried to wipe them clean but there was nowhere on his body that wasn't stained in his father's blood. "I just got here! I…I came into the passage and found him. Please, we have to—"

Before Revel could blink twice, Fritz was on him like a hunting hound chasing down a rabbit. He felt a fist connect with the side of his head and went down hard. Something vicelike clamped around his throat, fingers digging savagely into his Adam's apple, cutting off any cry he could have made. Recovering from the dizzying blow, Revel cracked open his eyes and let out a startled choke when he saw he was laying almost nose to nose with his dead father. The king's empty, glassy eyes stared at him, a splash of shock frozen on his cooling face.

"It's unnerving staring into the face of the man you killed, isn't it, you little prick?" Fritz seethed, face scrunched in a feral growl.

"I—d-didn't—"

"You're covered in the king's blood! Your knife is in his chest! What the fuck am I supposed to think?"

"P-please…someone else…"

"I always knew you were hungry for the throne. It's been written on your face for years," Fritz snarled. "But I can't fathom why you would kill your father first. He's old; he would have been dead in a few years anyway. What kind of assassin kills the king when you have a brother ahead of you? I can answer that for you. It's because your father disowned you and you just couldn't take it. I have the letter right here," Fritz smiled grimly and pulled a small scroll sealed with the Asham king's personal seal from his vest pocket. "Gregor was going to disinherit you, so you killed him before this letter could reach the council. It's just bad luck I intercepted this too late to stop you."

"I…I d-didn't…"

"Didn't what? Assassinate your father and plan to do the same to your brother? You're smart, Revel, but not that smart. They'll find that poison you've hidden in your room. We all know you're no match for Adrek, so poison was the only way you could eliminate him without getting your hands dirty, wasn't it? And if you did it during dinner, no one would ever suspect you! It would be the cooks fault or just bad food, but you weren't going to stop there, were you? Oh no, I'm sure they'd find a smothered little Symon in his bed one morning. Toddler deaths are so common amongst the aristocracy it's practically expected."

Revel looked genuinely startled, his eyes as big as dinner plates. "I…w-would never…d-do this."

"Yet your father is dead beside you, you're covered in his blood, that's your knife in his chest, and I find you standing over him. No, I've literally caught you red handed, Revel, and there's no one around to save you from the executioners block."

"No, p-please—"

"Begging now?" Fritz barked with laughter. "I always knew you were a cowardly little shit, but I'd be a damn fool to believe this wasn't all your idea. It's such a pity you won't be around to see the funeral. I'm positive King Gregor made provisions in his will for a grand celebration, but you will be rolled into a shallow grave after your execution for high treason."

Adrenaline finally hitting his blood, Revel began to struggle against his attacker, throwing punches that would have been enough to shatter a rib had he been at a better angle. As it was, Fritz had him pinned in such a way he couldn't land a proper blow strong enough to dislodge him. The Baron's bastard chuckled mirthlessly and shifted his weight, pressing a knee into Revel's sternum while simultaneously tightening his grip on his throat.

"You've learned a few things from the guards, I'll give you that."

"Y-you… you did….this…"

"Me? What motive do I have? Why would I kill the man who took me in and treated me like a son? Who are they going to believe: you, the bloody prince, or me, the valiant protector who got here just a little too late? At least…that's what I'll tell them," Fritz said with vicious smile, and suddenly Revel understood what was actually happening. It was a setup, a trap, and he'd walked blindly into it. He couldn't fathom why Fritz was doing this, but cold hard truth was that his father was dead and the Baron's bastard had every intention of painting Revel as the assassin.

It was useless trying to pry Fritz's hands off his throat, so the Asham prince did the next best thing. He was close enough to his father's body that he could reach the dagger protruding from his chest. In one swift movement, Revel pulled the weapon free and struck wherever he saw an opening. Fritz howled in pain and rolled off, but not before the prince snatched the letter from the bastard's hands. It was probably the only smart decision he'd made that evening. Gasping and coughing, Revel staggered to his feet and ran back through the passage. He could hear Fritz bellowing behind him, screaming for guards and raising the alarm. It was a miracle the Asham prince made it back over the wall and disappeared into the city. From there he continued to run, barreling past startled townsfolk at a reckless speed. He kept running, lungs burning, until he was well beyond the kingdom and hidden within the miles of forest encircling Asham.

It would take fifteen years for the prince to stop running, but even though the chase was over, even though the truth was slowly coming out about his past and the events that had lead him ultimately to this cell at the bottom of Arendelle's castle, Revel still felt the driving urge to keep running. If he did, maybe he could finally outrun his guilt. The only reason his father had been in the ballroom was to intercept him upon his return to the castle. Had Revel not snuck out, King Gregor would never have been there. Had he also stayed within the castle and found a guard who could vouch for his whereabouts during the assassination, instead of running like a criminal caught in the act, none of this would have happened. But he'd been a scared fifteen year old who'd tripped over the murdered corpse of his father, touched his blood, felt his cooling body. He'd also been told his father had disowned him, a thin lie crafted by a master manipulator, but it the moment it had shattered Revel. Reason abandoned him like it did in moments situations of startled shock, and he'd done the instinctive thing and run for his life. It was a decision that dogged him like an unwanted shadow to this very day.

It wasn't until much later, when he was well hidden from the search parties trying to smoke him out, that he discovered Fritz had lied about the letter and its true meaning. It hadn't been Revel who'd been disinherited, it had been Adrek, and for reasons the former captain should have seen years ago. But he'd been young and blind, caught up in his own little world, as most adolescents often where. In the end, he'd played right into Fritz's hands and become the scape goat the Baron's bastard needed. It had been Fritz who murdered King Gregor, Fritz who slit his throat and stabbed him six times, Fritz who orchestrated it all in order to made damn certain that Adrek took the throne. That letter Revel stole had been meant for the council, and it was the only flaw in Fritz's otherwise perfect plan. Now, Revel was the linchpin to Adrek and Fritz's sham, a linchpin they were going to make certain died with his secrets. Well…that wasn't the case any longer because Elsa was now embroiled in this chaos. Hadn't he begged her to let him go? Hadn't he pleaded with Anna to stop her sister from digging?

_Love really does make you do stupid things._

Sighing again, the former captain leaned back and looked up at the dim light coming through his window. Sunset was only a couple of minutes away, the day having sped by without him noticing.

_An hour after sunset….what are you thinking Anna?_

* * *

><p>"This is never going to work," Kristoff said struggling to hold on to the bundle in his arms as he followed his wife to the stables. It was forty five minutes after sunset and the stable master was preparing to bed down the horses and Sven for the night after his assistants mucked out the stables and spread a fresh layer of hay in each stall.<p>

"Stop being so pessimistic. It'll work; I just have to time it right."

"And if you don't? If the guard is still there or he comes back too soon or he raises the alarm, what then? Anna, we should listen to your sister and let her handle this."

Anna turned on him, pivoting on the balls of her feet remarkably fast for a pregnant woman. "We've let her handle this from the start, and it's only gotten worse."

"You know there's a lot of stuffy legal," Kristoff made a confused gesture, "stuff she has a wade through. It's delicate work."

"And you'd know this how?" Anna countered, poking him in the chest.

"I've lived with you long enough to know that your sister walks a tightrope almost every day. It's a wonder she's not balding with all the stress she's constantly under."

Something akin to shame flickered in Anna's blue eyes and pulled the outer edges of her shoulders down. Her delicate, freckle dusted brow wrinkled as she frowned, her fingers absentmindedly twisting into the fabric of her skirt. "I know. She's done so much for this kingdom…for us, but she's thinking with her head and not her heart. My sister may be queen, but sometimes she forgets she's also human and is allowed to feel and act like one from time to time. There's nothing political she can do to stop this, Kristoff. You didn't hear the awful things Fritz said towards Revel and Elsa. They're going to kill him one way or another then come after my sister. I have to get him out of the city before that happens. She needs him out of the picture so she can worry about herself."

The mountain man grunted unhappily and set his bundle down on a stool beside Sven's stall. From the other side of the building, the stable master raised a hand in greeting, which Kristoff returned, before turning back to his work. "If Adrek really plans to do what you said, how is getting Revel out of the kingdom going to help matters? They'll blame your sister for letting him escape, and I'm not sure the queen wants to start a war with Asham."

"I have to do something, Kristoff. I can't let him just sit down there unprotected. They won't link it back to my sister because she's been in the castle all afternoon. They won't look to me because I'm small and pregnant and supposedly not capable of such mischief."

"Yeah right, if only they knew," Kristoff scoffed. Anna punched him hard in the shoulder. "Ow, damn woman, you've got boney knuckles."

"All the better to keeping smug men like you in line," the princess attempted to frown seriously but couldn't hold back a lopsided smile. "It will look like an inside job. Either Revel escaped on his own, or one of the guards helped him. Either way it will give us some time to figure this all out. I'll take care of Elsa," Anna added reassuringly, seeing the unconvinced look on her husband's face.

"I still think this is going to end badly, but I'd follow you into hell blindfolded." Taking a deep breath and exhaling gustily, Kristoff pursed his lips and nodded, which to the princess was absolutely adorable. "Alright, go do your thing. I'll be here waiting, just be quick about it. We don't have a lot of time before the next guard rotation."

Grinning broadly, Anna stood on her tiptoes and kissed her valiant reindeer king on the cheek and hurried off towards the kitchens. Kristoff watched her go, nervousness making him shift from foot to foot. He was about to let his heavily pregnant wife spring an accused murderer from jail, at night, while his king brother and unstable champion were present in the kingdom. Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?

"You ready, guys?" the mountain man asked stepping into Sven's stall. The reindeer bounced excitedly, grunting and snorting.

"Sven and I are ready for action, Kristoff!" Olaf confirmed, attempting a mock salute with his little stick arm, expression arranged into something akin to stoicism.

"You remember the plan?"

"Oh definitely, but we're not allowed to say it out loud," Olaf nodded dubiously and reached up to scratch Sven's shoulder. "Isn't that right, Sven? No talking about the plan."

"Good. Anna will be back in a few minutes, so help me saddle Sven." Turning to the reindeer he said, "You're gonna have to trust me, buddy. Things are about to get really, really interesting around here for a little bit."

Sven bugled happily and stuck out his tongue, clearly anticipating a change of pace. Kristoff smiled warmly and began laying the blankets over the reindeer's soft coat, his hands going through the motions while his mind rolled over everything Anna had told him and what was about to happen.

_I don't usually pray to anything, _he thought, cheeks coloring a bit,_ didn't feel the need, but if there's someone out there looking out for us, please let Anna get through this safely. And if something happens to her, just know that if you happen across a dead prince in the afterlife, trust that I killed him for a good reason. _

* * *

><p>"Come on, Anna…one step at a time," the princess whispered to herself as she descended the cramped staircase of the secret passage, hands sliding along the rough stone walls for both leverage and guidance. It was her second descent that day into the dungeon and probably her most nerve wracking. Paranoia made her think that each footfall was as loud as a cannon blast, the rustle of her dress a flag snapping in a strong wind. She feared the moment she pressed the release in the wall at the bottom of the stairs a squad of guards would swarm her and clap her in irons. It was a ridiculous idea, none of the royal guards would lay a hand on a member of the royal family without cause, but it was still a lingering fear she couldn't shake. Anna physically winced when the door slid open, bracing herself to be rushed, but there wasn't a squad of guards waiting for her or even one guard. Just an empty hallway.<p>

Exhaling her held breath, the princess quickly traversed the distance between her and Revel's cell as silently as she had the first time. How she was going to pull this off was still a vague mystery. She'd reassured Kristoff she had a plan, but in reality, Anna was making this up as she went along. Improvisation was second nature to the princess, but somehow tonight didn't seem like an appropriate place for attempting to pull a miracle out of her ass. Rounding the corner, Anna wasn't surprised to find Revel waiting for her, standing at the center of his cell and tracking her with his eyes.

"Anna," he began in a wary voice, "this is a stupid idea, and you know it."

"You don't even know what it is yet," she countered, planting her hands on her hips.

"You're nearly nine months pregnant," he pointed out as if it made all the difference, which it really did, but Anna wasn't going to admit he was right.

"And your point is?" she asked stubbornly.

"Do I really need to spell this out for you? This is dangerous. No, it's not even that, it's just plain stupid. What are you going to do? How are you going to get me out of this cell let alone the castle? And, let's pretend for a minute that I actually _had_ some place to go, how is me leaving going to solve anything? Adrek will tear this kingdom apart looking for me, destroying everything you sister has built, everything your family and ancestors fought to create. You're going to singlehandedly—"

"Revel, you would do well to shut the fuck up," the princess deadpanned with a flat look. she saw that Revel wanted to force his argument but saw no point in trying to divert the princess from her asinine plan. Instead, he clicked his mouth shut and looked away. Satisfied she'd silenced him for the moment, Anna turned in a tight circle looking for something, anything, that would help her pull together her wafer thin plan.

"You don't even know what you're doing, do you?" Revel sighed, putting his head in his hands.

"Why are all the men in this kingdom pessimists?" she grumbled, circling the crates she'd hidden behind that morning. On her second rotation, inspiration hit her like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky and she dove on the wooden cubes with a triumphant cry. Revel flinched and craned his neck towards the dungeon door out of reflex despite not being able to actually see it.

"Anna, be quiet. Do you want the guard to come in here?" he admonished as the princess began prying at the top of the crate with determined little grunts. After a moment a few loose boards pulled free allowing her to stick her arm into the box and root around. Her hand brushed up against something familiar and she laughed as the rest of her plan snapped into place like missing pieces to a puzzle.

"Actually, yes I do," she grinned and hefted the solution to her problem in one hand, admiring its weight.

Revel's eyes went wide, mouth hanging open. "Anna….Anna, what are you—"

The chime of the frying pan striking the stone wall several times shattered the gloomy silence into a hundred thousand pieces. It was jarring, it was jagged, sharp as a knife, it set Revel's teeth on edge and made his ears ring, but most importantly, it brought the door guard scurrying into the chamber like a bat out of hell. Naturally, his attention was solely on Revel's cell and the completely dumbstruck prisoner standing slack-jawed its center. The guard didn't have a chance. Anna was behind him the instant he emerged from the short hallway and swung the cooking utensil with all her force into the side of his helmeted head. The distinctive clang of metal on metal rent the air, another rancorous sound that echoed like thunder, quickly followed by the dull thud of a fully armored body hitting the stone floor.

For a beat Anna just stood there staring down at the guard in silent astonishment. Her heart was racing behind her ribcage but she was strangely calm, her hands steady despite having waylaid a fully grown man upside the head with a cast iron frying pan. However, her calm splintered when the guard moaned weakly and attempted to rise. With a startled squeak, she brought the pan down against the back of his head in a double handed swing that ended any attempt the guard might make of getting to his feet anytime soon.

"Ha! Frying pans…who knew right? Guess Corona is actually on to something!" Anna laughed nervously. Revel still had his head in his hands and groaned behind his fingers.

"That was the farthest thing from subtle I've ever seen," he said after a moment, dragging his hands down his face.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?"

"What if he saw you?"

"Oh yeah, because Arendelle guards are famous for having eyes in the back of their heads," she quipped over her shoulder, disappearing down the hallways and returning with a set of keys. "Do you know which one opens this cage? They all look the same to me."

"Give them here," Revel said, holding out his shackled hands. It took him a few tries to find the right key for the chains, but eventually one stuck and he almost cried with relief as the heavy manacles fell from his raw wrists with a rattling clank. "That's so much better," he sighed contentedly, massaging the sore spots.

"What are we going to do with _him_?" Anna asked, poking the guard with her foot.

"We'll lock him in here," Revel replied, wincing as the cell door screeched open. "That will at least keep him out of our hair for a little while and delay anyone from sounding the alarm."

"Works for me," Anna nodded and moved to help the former captain but he held up a hand to ward her off. The princess straightened and stared down at him confused.

"You're _heavily_ pregnant, Anna," Revel explained, very nearly rolling his eyes. "The last thing you need to be doing is lifting something heavy."

Anna threw up her hands in exasperation but didn't push the matter, instead watching Revel drag the guard into the cell and gently lean him against the wall after removing his helm. "I apologize in advance for the wicked headache you'll have when you wake, my friend," he said quietly and relieved the man of his spare keys. Anna waved him towards the back of the dungeon after he'd secured the cell door.

"How did you find this passage anyway," Revel asked as he squeezed into the tiny space, nearly tripping over the first stair.

"Long story. Head straight up but wait for me at the top." Anna pressed the release button and shut the door behind them, cementing Revel's master escape into legend. Years in the future, the story of the former captain's escape would morph into a fantastic tale so far beyond the original fact it would take on a life of its own. Some would claim that he simply walked out of his cell after making a deal with an air goddess; some would say he picked the lock on his shackles and cell door with a lock of hair frozen by the Snow Queen. Some would say he used otherworldly skills to trick the guard into approaching his cell where he quickly overpowered the man and stole his keys, and some would say he was rescued by a band of mutineer guards still loyal to him. No matter the telling, the legend usually left out the part where a simple frying pan wielded by a determined, heavily pregnant princess and a forgotten passage acted as the linchpin to his successful escape.

Walking up a flight of stairs while pregnant was a hassle, but doing it while completely blind was an aggravatingly slow process. More than once, Anna forgot to lift her foot high enough and nearly pitched forward onto her hands. Thankfully, the passage and the climb weren't as steep as it could have been, and she reached the top shortly after Revel.

"Where is it going to open at?" he whispered in the darkness. Anna jumped when his hand brushed her face. "Sorry, I can't see a thing."

"That makes two of us," Anna admitted, searching for the switch. "Damn, I can't find it."

"Where is it?"

"On the right, but it's small. Usually when I walk up these stairs I drag my hand along the wall at a waist height to make sure my fingers brush it, but I got distracted with a funny thing called balance. Hold on—here you shuffle to the left—_other left, other left_!" she hissed when Revel almost backed her into the steps behind her.

"Sorry," he gasped, grabbing what he hoped was her shoulder in order to pull her back towards him. However, that didn't seem to be the case.

"Revel…kindly let go of my breast."

"Shit, sorry."

"Wait, wait, just let me—" Anna attempted to disentangle herself, her hand brushing against what could have been the former captain's chest or back, she wasn't sure. A second later, the two jumped back with a startled jerk when a faint iridescent blue glow began emanating from under his shirt, suffusing the small space in soft light. The princess blinked in surprise, eyes drawn to the light.

"Is…is that a troll crystal?"

Revel looked down in genuine surprise and pulled the little blue gem out from under his shirt. The light intensified in his hands, shinning like a tiny blue sun. He could feel a slight tingle against the skin of his palm as if the rock somehow had a heartbeat, but that was impossible… wasn't it?

"She gave you her crystal?" Anna asked, canting her head. She hadn't expected an answer, her words more of a personal statement. Regardless, Revel provided both a curious and slightly irritating answer.

"Saja told her she couldn't wear it because of troll magic…" he shrugged, still enamored by the gem. He shouldn't have been so taken aback by the presence of magic, but it still had the ability to confound him.

"I should have known," Anna grumbled, rolling her eyes. Of course Saja had told her not to wear it. The ancient Frost Born had a vindictive prejudice against the trolls that was still an aggravating mystery to the royal family. Shaking her head to be rid of clawing questions, Anna searched and found the switch behind Revel's left elbow. An audible hiss filled the tiny chamber as the door swung open. The princess poked her head out first, making sure the coast was clear, before waving Revel forward. "Do you know where the switch is in the kitchen for the passage?"

"I think so," Revel whispered, following behind her closely, all the while keeping an eye out for any guards. It felt strange being on the other end of the spectrum again, skulking around like a criminal, jumping from shadow to shadow.

The kitchen was blessedly devoid of people, the hearths burning only embers. Revel found the passage door behind a shelf packed to capacity with different bottled ingredients. The switch was a little more difficult to spot, but the added light of his still glowing crystal helped the two find it on their second try.

"Is the stable master out of his room?" Revel asked as they neared the final door. His heart was racing, pounding in his ears like crashing waves. He'd not expected them to make it this far without incident. Hell, he'd not even expected this to happen at all. It had been his decision to finally face his brother and end the game of chase between them, but apparently his fate wasn't entirely in his hands. Revel had overestimated two key elements: love and loyalty. The royal sisters' had both but showed them in different ways. Elsa loved him deeply, or so he still hoped, but she was a queen first and a lover second. Though she may love him, she was eternally loyal to her kingdom first and would do everything within her power to keep it out of harms reach. Revel respected that because he would do the same thing. Anna, however, loved her kingdom, but her loyalties were exclusive to her family and friends, the two always a step above the love she had for Arendelle. Both were endearing qualities for two extraordinary women who acted upon them in very different ways, and Revel didn't know whether or not to be angry with Anna for breaking him out, angry at himself for following her, or angry with Elsa for not standing beside her morals and keeping the princess in line. Or perhaps he shouldn't be feeling the sting of anger at all. Regardless, Revel felt confused and rushed, the events of the past couple of hours nothing but a discombobulating blur of motion and sound.

"With any luck he'll be in the courtyard," Anna replied, standing on tiptoes and looking through the peep hole. Satisfied the room was empty, the two stepped out of the passage and quickly ducked into the stables where they ran to Sven's stall which was closest to the doors. But no sooner had they stepped into the spacious, hay dusted room, a fist connected with Revel's jaw and sent him sprawling. Anna gave a startled gasp and jumped between her husband and the now prone Revel, hands thrown wide to block his path.

"Kristoff, what are you doing?! That's Revel!" she hissed and pushed him backwards with a sharp shove. Sven and Olaf seemed to be just as floored as Anna, the two staring in wide-eyed wonder.

"I know who it is," the mountain man rumbled, flexing his fingers and cracking the joints.

"Then why did you hit him?!"

"He knows why," Kristoff replied evenly.

"It's alright, Anna. I…I deserved that," Revel said spitting a stream of pinkish blood into the hay.

"What are you talking about?" the princess gaped.

"I warned him if he ever hurt your sister I'd make him bleed," Kristoff offered as a reply as he retrieved a carefully folded bundle from a stool nearby.

Anna's face was starting to color, a telltale sign she was on the verge of a verbal explosion, but Revel held out a placating hand to forestall her. "It's alright, Anna. I deserve more for what I've done," he reassured, darting a look over at Kristoff who seemed perfectly content and at ease.

"Did anyone see you?" Kristoff asked from beside a fully saddled Sven, changing the course of their conversation.

"Do you hear an alarm?" Anna growled.

"Doesn't mean you weren't seen."

"Oh come on, Kristoff," Olaf said with a cheerful snort. "Anna's the best in the kingdom at playing hide-and-seek."

The princess couldn't help but crack a smile at the little snowman's words, pride filling her chest a bit. "He's right, I am."

"I can assure you, we were not seen," Revel said gathering his feet under him and moving away from the door. "But we should get on with whatever you two have planned. There's no telling how long before the guard wakes up."

Kristoff slid a look over at his wife who returned his gaze with a steely one of her own. Somehow he just knew that whatever had happened in the dungeon had been Anna's doing. "Put these on," he said, tossing a wadded bundle at Revel.

The former captain shook out the wadded mass of cloth and was surprised to find a small provisions sack and a pair of clothes….Kristoff's ice harvesting clothes to be precise. He held the shirt up to himself and stared down at the massive piece of wool fabric. The pants were no better, the legs extending beyond his own feet by a good five inches.

"I…I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to do."

"Haven't you ever heard of disguises?" Anna said and threw up her arms. "Not only are you all pessimists but you have no imagination!"

"How is this a disguise? I'll look like a baggy Kristoff with brown hair. It might be after sunset, but the gate guards have sharp eyes."

"Hence why there's a hat in there."

"I really don't think this is going to work."

"You really don't have a choice right now. Hurry up and get dressed. I let the guards know this morning that I might be making an ice run sometime this evening. They'll only hold the gates for so long," the mountain man said, waving a hand for Revel to start dressing which the former captain did with a bit of nervous reluctance. This was never going to work.

"And where am I to go?" he asked pulling the oversized gray tunic over his dirty white undershirt and synching it as tightly as he could with the provided sash.

"Sven and I are taking you to a safe place, but I can't say where it is until we're out of the city," Olaf beamed and scratched Sven's velvety muzzle.

Revel glanced at the little animated snowman and happily grunting reindeer, skepticism momentarily twisting his face. This really wasn't going to work. He heard Anna giggling and turned towards her, the sleeves of his gray tunic hanging loose and useless over his hands. Looking down at himself, Revel felt a small smile twist the corner of his lips. He looked like a little boy who'd donned his father's clothing. Everything was three sizes too large and hung off his slender frame like sail cloth. Even the hat was too big, sliding down over his eyebrows unless he popped the tops of his ears out from under it.

"You look cute."

"I look baggy," Revel retorted with a chuckle.

"There are better fitting clothes in the pack along with some food and a few wilderness provisions. This was all spur of the moment," Kristoff explained as he led Sven over to them by the reigns. "I wish the two of you could get better acquainted, but we're short on time. Climb up and get situated."

In his youth, Revel had ridden horses, but there was a massive difference between a domesticated equine and a wild reindeer that just happened to have a propensity for forming friendly bonds with humans. One major point being that Sven had an impressive rack of antlers that could, and probably had in the past, have done serious damage. Revel didn't want to be on the other end of those antlers…ever.

"He runs a little different than a horse, so keep low when he picks up speed," Kristoff explained as Revel swung himself into the saddle and felt the power of the large animal under him as Sven shifted. Olaf clambered into place, his cold little body pressed against Revel's back. Above, the personal flurry Elsa had gifted the snowman so that he could survive the remaining three seasons rained down tiny flakes of snow and swirling arctic air.

"Thank you, the both of you," Revel said with a nod. "I really don't know what—"

"Save the appreciation for when you actually get out of the city," Kristoff said sliding the door to the stall open fully and watching down the aisle for the stable master.

"Go, Revel. Sven knows the way," Anna said, squeezing his hand tightly.

"Thank you, and tell your sister I'm…" he faltered, unsure of exactly what he wanted Anna to tell the queen, but the princess smiled a knowing smile and stepped back.

"I will. Now run."

And he did just that. For the second time in his life, Revel fled from the life he'd struggled to make for himself fifteen years ago. Clinging to the reindeer's back, because that's really all he can do when saddled on an animal that could outmaneuver a horse, Revel felt the wind ripping at him as Sven charged through the stables, across the island bridge, and through town at a reckless speed that left the former captain breathless. Distantly, he imagined that the wind roaring all around him, tugging at his ill-fitting disguise and unkempt hair, was actually stripping away the years he'd spent in Arendelle like water eroding a sandcastle. His identity was gone, his life was gone, his love…well, he didn't know where that was, but he was pretty sure that was gone as well. There was no going back at this point, and as Sven burst from the forest and started up the steep incline towards the mountains, Revel reined up the big creature and turned him at an angle.

"What are you doing?" Olaf asked from behind him, shifting a little to see what was going on.

"I just want to see it one last time," Revel said looking out over the kingdom and the life he was leaving behind.

"But you'll see it again," Olaf said, confusion coloring his voice.

"No, I'll never see Arendelle again in this lifetime," Revel sighed and felt the sting of tears in his eyes.

"But…but you love Elsa, and she loves you. You can't _never_ come back!"

"I love her too," Revel said and felt something break in his chest. During all their quiet moments and late night passions, in all the secret seconds stolen and shared, he'd never said those three powerful words out loud. Oh, he'd said it enough in his head, but they have never rolled from his lips and the pain of that regret was almost crippling.

_I should have told her. I should have said it over and over again until she was sick of hearing it and kept telling her. Even if she didn't feel the same way, I should have said 'I love you' with every breath because now I'll never get that chance._

"And it's because I love her that I can't go back," he continued, his eyes scanning the sleeping kingdom. "Not as the man I am now. Not as a fugitive and not as a captain."

Off in the distance, Revel heard the first set of chimes break the silent stillness. After a moment, two more joined in, bells ringing in a chaotic frenzy that could only signify one very important thing. A prisoner had escaped and all guards were being called to action. With a sad sigh, he turned Sven around and urged the beast into motion. He had an idea of where the reindeer and snowman were taking him, but it wouldn't matter. Even at the ice castle perched on the craggy face of North Mountain he and Elsa would be out of each-others reach. He'd lose the snowman and reindeer once they reached the icy fortress, disappearing into the wilderness, because distance was his only solution to making absolutely certain Elsa and her family remained safe.

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><p><strong>AN: ***contented sigh* so much to take in. Just breathe, you'll be alright. =) As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and reviews! Doesn't matter if it's just a "thumbs up! Loved it!", let me hear your voice! Also, remember to follow me on tumblr as I'll still post sneak peeks (Dustings) as I write the upcoming chapters, and let me tell you, things are gonna get seriously interesting.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** I don't think I've written a full chapter like this one so fast before in my life. Good lord, it's like I can finally exhale! So here you are my lovelies, the beginning to the end. We're nearing the final five-ish chapters and things are going to get fairly dark fairly quickly. If you've been following me on my tumblr, you know what I'm hinting at. But for now, enjoy the ride as we rise to the peak of the roller coaster and are poised to fall =)

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><p>"Pain is weakness!" Elsa heard Saja shouting as if she were trying to communicate with her from far away. "It fractures our magic. Emotion is our strength. Concentrate, Elsa. Concentrate! Don't lose your grip!"<p>

But she was losing her grip. The dream was fading like smoke in the wind and taking Saja and her warnings with it. From some faraway place, Elsa heard chimes that grew louder with each peal. It was the ringing of the bells that dragged her reluctantly out of the sweet embrace of sleep. She didn't even remember nodding off on the small couch in her study, but apparently her exhaustion had been stronger than she'd previously thought. With a groggy groan, Elsa sat up and dug the heels of her palms into her eyes, chasing the remnants of her dream. Unsurprisingly, she didn't feel rested at all. What time was it, and why on earth were the bells ringing? It had to be well past sunset, past any reasonable hour for bells to be tolling, so why—

Elsa scrambled to her feet, the fog in her head evaporating under the heat of her sudden awareness. There wasn't just one bell ringing like it did when chiming the hour or calling patrons to Mass; all the bells in her kingdom were tolling at once, a cacophony that shook the air with a frenzied chaos. The queen knew what those bells meant, though she never believed she'd ever hear them in her lifetime. Her first reaction was stunned amazement. A prisoner escape—in Arendelle—it simply didn't happen. Then a far darker thought touched her mind and she stopped dead in her tracks. Revel was loose and his brother was docked in the harbor, but how? She'd placed guards…she'd done everything right….she'd…

_Someone helped him escape,_ Elsa realized like a smack in the face, and her previous stupefied amazement turned to simmering anger. She had no doubt someone had freed Revel. Those bells wouldn't be ringing for anyone aside for Arendelle's most recent prisoner turned escapee. Turning sharply, she rounded her desk and snatched up the letter found in Revel's ransacked room. Elsa knelt down and felt around for the hidden panel in her desk where all sensitive documents remained until they could be sealed in the vaults. For the time being, until she could figure out what had happened and why, the letter of Adrek's disinheritance would remain safely hidden. It was only after she'd secured the panel that the queen took her leave to find Kai for the second time that day.

Earlier that morning, Elsa had anxiously sought out the manservant, the letter clutched tightly in her hands. The truth behind King Gregor's death had been earth-shattering and left Arendelle's queen speechless, but for some insane reason, she somewhat believed that the letter was a hoax of some sort. Forgeries of royal seals and signets weren't all that uncommon, so this could very well be one of those situations. She'd found Kai instructing a small cluster of castle staff where to take the books he'd ordered and pulling the manservant into an unoccupied room.

"Majesty, is something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Kai, are you familiar with the royal seal of Asham?" Elsa had asked, her voice shaking almost as badly as her hands. She was having trouble keeping frost from crusting her fingernails or from creeping out from under her feet.

"I…yes, Majesty, I am. Do you need me to look at something?"

"Yes." Elsa handed him the letter, and Kai took it with such care it was like she was handing him a venomous serpent. "Read it as well."

The manservant turned the letter over and stared at the seal for a moment, eyebrows scrunched together. "This looks like King Gregor's personal seal, but I can't be sure until I cross-reference it with the seal on file in the library." He then gently opened the parchment and began to read, his expression going from curiosity, to bafflement, then to stunned shock. Unlike Elsa, who hadn't expected the physical blow the letter would deliver, Kai weathered his surprise well and straightened, cleared his throat with a small cough. His eyes were still as large as dinner plates and he'd gone a shade or two paler. "Majesty, this…this means…"

"I know. This changes everything."

"A king, Captain Revel is…the rightful ruler of Asham."

"Meaning his brother is an imposter as well as a murderer."

"And…the rest of the letter. The reason for his disinheritance—"

"We will not speak of that aloud. Not right now," Elsa said with heavy finality. "Are you certain we have Gregor's seal?"

"He and your father had dealings before Gregor's death when you were ten. The late Asham king visited a few times and regularly attended the Trade Summit. He would have had to use his seal to register with the palace guards. I'm more than certain I have that same ledger in the library, but it will just take some time to find."

Elsa exhaled slowly, her mind racing. "Check the ledger, but let no one see this letter, Kai. No one."

The manservant bowed and slid the letter into his breast pocket. "I will go check immediately."

"Thank you, Kai," Elsa said and tried to force a smile. Nothing happened, her face was still frozen from shock and worry, so she pursed her lips nodded instead. "Has there been word from Adrek?" she inquired as the two of them walked towards the door. Judging by the manservant's sudden stiffness, there had.

"King Adrek wishes to meet with you as soon as possible. I assume it will be to continue the discussion of extradition. If you like, I could stall for a while longer so you can—"

"No," the queen interrupted, her hand on the door handle, "we cannot let on that we know something is amiss. I will go to the meeting while you look for the seal. When you find it, have one of the servants come and fetch me. It is imperative not to raise Adrek's suspicion."

"As you wish, Majesty," Kai bowed again and hurried down the hall at a fast clip.

So Elsa had done exactly as she'd said; venturing into the meeting with the king of Asham that lasted well into the afternoon with no headway made on either side. She would not budge on her policy of extradition and Adrek would not take no for an answer.

"My extradition law stands, King Adrek, and I will not change it for the benefit of one man or one kingdom," Elsa ground out, her patience with their circular argument wearing thin.

"This is not a matter of allowing one over the other. My brother is guilty of murder and will answer for his crimes!" Adrek shouted, pounding the table with his fist.

"A sentence that can be served here! You forget, Revel is also guilty of impersonating a member of my royal staff, and this is a crime I do not take lightly. His incarceration for both crimes should be enough to sate your desire for justice, or is it solely blood you crave?" the queen growled, frost slowly starting to overtake the chair she was seated in. She feared her temper and frayed nerves would eventually betray her the longer they argued, the gravity of her knowledge hanging like a weight around her neck. She could destroy him with a word, strip his title as easily as ripping a cloak off his shoulders. All she had to do was mention the letter, but until its authenticity had been verified, Elsa understood that she did not, in fact, hold all the cards. And if she pushed too hard there was a chance the topic of war could be broached. That dark thought alone was enough to squeeze the queen's lungs with abject terror. She would not let Arendelle descend into war.

So when Gerda came to fetch her a little before dinner, she'd excused herself and gone directly to Kai who was waiting for her in her study. One look was all she needed. The letter was real, the seal was real, the implications were real, and so was the imminent threat to her kingdom.

"I need to think," Elsa mumbled, moving over to her large, dark wood desk and slumping into the padded chair.

"I've left the ledger open on the table for you," Kai indicated. "Do you need anything more, Majesty?"

"No…no that will be all. Adrek has returned to his ship for dinner. Inform me the moment he's back in the castle."

Kai bowed silently and slipped from the room, closing the door quietly behind him. That's when Elsa had sprung from her seat and began to pace in earnest, pulse rushing in her ears. She eventually took a seat on the couch before the fire, head in her hands and ice at her feet, and remained like that for quite some time. She didn't remember falling asleep, didn't even remember closing her eyes, but was later jerked awake by the toll of the alarm bell.

And those bells were still ringing when she stepped from her study and hurriedly made her way towards the Great Hall, passing clusters of nervous servants. Each step brought her closer to an answer, but it also fanned the flames of her anger. Revel had been in custody for only a day at best and already something had happened. The worst possible something, actually.

_Escaped, how is that even possible?_ Elsa fumed as she began to descend the spiral staircase, ice trailing behind her on the banister and stairs. _You stupid, fool of a man. Do you realize what you've done to me? What kind of mess I have to clean up. Do you even care?_

Yes, the farther Elsa walked from her study the angrier she became. If the swirl of arctic air following her wasn't enough of an indication that the queen was in a dark mood, the stormy set of her face and the gentle glow of her eyes sent servants scurrying out of her way. It was just unhappy luck that Sigmund, Revel's lieutenant now turned acting captain, was standing in the center of the Great Hall when the queen appeared. He was addressing a group of guards, one of which was supported on either arm by concerned comrades while holding a bloody rag against his head. When the small squad of guards caught sight of the queen they stiffened and attempted a salute.

"Majesty," they all mumbled in unison, swallowing hard.

Sigmund, who'd had his back to Elsa, turned sharply on his heels and snapped a smart salute. "Queen Elsa, I regret to inform you that Captain Revel has—"

"He's no longer your captain," Elsa snapped with more bite in her tone than she'd anticipated. "And I am well aware of what those bells mean. How did this happen?"

"The fault is mine," Sigmund began before any of his guards could open their mouths. "I should have had more detail on the dungeon door."

"It's not your fault Sig— um, I mean— Captain Sigmund," the guard holding the bloody rag said, attempting to step forward. Apparently his equilibrium hadn't yet recovered because he began to tilt sideways and would have crashed to the floor had his friends not grabbed him and hauled him back up.

"Tell me what happened," she commanded, making sure to keep her eyes locked with his.

"He's a new recruit," Sigmund jumped in quickly, sensing the queen's anger and propelled to protect the men that were now his responsibility. "He shouldn't have been stationed there in the first place. Please, Queen Elsa, this is my—"

Elsa held up a hand to silence him, but her cutting glance would have been enough. Sigmund wisely stepped back, his cheeks coloring a bit. Instinct told Elsa that Revel's escape had most certainly been an inside job, but finding whoever had broken him out was going to prove to be a daunting task. The queen wasn't under any disillusion that the royal guards weren't still loyal to the man who had been their captain for more than five years. Revel was well-liked by all and had trained his men well. The person responsible wouldn't come forward willingly, and the guards, if it was indeed a guard who'd done this, would protect their own.

"Tell me what happened," she commanded again, her voice low.

"Majesty, I'm…I'm sorry, I don't want to make excuses, but I don't really know what happened. I heard a ruckus in the chamber that sounded like someone hitting a pan against the wall. I ran in, thinking the cap— thinking Revel had somehow gotten out of his cell or someone had gotten in, and when I came around the corner something hit me in the side of the head. I…I went down and tried to rise, but whoever was in the dungeon hit me again in the back of the head. When I awoke, I was locked in the cell and Revel was gone." The guard finished his story and hung his head desolately. He looked like a man who'd just lost everything or was preparing to.

Elsa slid a look over at Sigmund, posture as rigid as a plank of wood. The big guard returned her gaze with an unreadable stare. "Is this true? Is that how they found him?"

"Yes," Sigmund confirmed quietly. "There were a few crates stored in the dungeon for the Summit, and we suspect whoever broke Revel out used a frying pan from one of those crates. The…weapon was found next to the cell door."

"And no one saw him leave the castle? With all the guards we have making near constant circuits, no one saw him leave with this mysterious person?" Elsa growled, her temper growing hotter with each exhale. The men standing before her shifted nervously. "So I am to believe that one man, secured in my dungeon, under guard, somehow slipped his bonds, incapacitated his goaler, and snuck through a castle full of patrolling guards unnoticed. Do we even know if he's still in the city? Do we know if he's _armed_?" her voice was slowly rising in octave along with her magic, shoots of frost skittering across the marble floor.

"That's the only explanation we have, Majesty, and I can assure you, we're as baffled as you are."

"You think me _baffled_?" Elsa gaped, the brunt of her anger breaking the surface. The men took a collective step back when they realized her eyes were starting to glow. She didn't want to be angry with her guards, knew it was wrong to blame them for what had happened, but the truth was she was furious as much as she was terrified. Revel was gone, which meant his brother would assume that she was the culprit for freeing him. Hadn't she refused to release him into the Asham king's custody? Hadn't she told him that Revel would remain in Arendelle to serve out his sentence for impersonation? And now, after their last big meeting filled with heated words and veiled threats, the prisoner in question was gone and the best explanation she had for his escape was fantastical at best.

_This will start a war. Oh sweet God, I'm about to go to war._

"Baffled is what I was just a few moments ago when I awoke to the sound of alarm bells," Elsa spat, advancing on Sigmund. "Baffled was what I was coming down these steps and seeing you four standing here. I am far from baffled at the moment. I'm furious. No, I'm beyond furious, I'm—"

A movement out of the corner of her eye stopped her dead, and if it wasn't the movement that arrested her seething anger it was the look her sister gave her as she attempted to shimmy around the corner and head for the residency wing stairs. Anna had visibly winced. It was fast, too fast for anyone not accustomed to reading the princess's lightning-fast expressions, but Elsa was an expert by this point and felt her stomach do a flip. The princess, who hadn't moved from her stop on the stairs after being spotted, had adopted a cautious curiosity, and her nervousness at approaching her sister spoke volumes to the queen. Something clicked into place in Elsa's mind, and she felt the floor buck under her.

_No, Anna. What have you done?_

Revel had vanished without a trace. That was a fact, but how he'd done it was still a mystery—well, until now. She should have known her sister would know about that particular secret passage with all the exploring Anna had done over the years. It had been something Elsa's father had shown her shortly before his death. King Agdar wanted to make certain that his queen-to-be daughter knew about the dungeon passage should events in the future take a turn for the worst. She didn't understand why he had shown her that one and not the one in the royal chambers, but Elsa surmised he'd meant to but died before telling her. As it was, the queen now fully understood what had happened, and her forge-hot anger turned to sleet in her veins.

"Captain Sigmund," Elsa snapped, pulling her stare away from her sister. "I am making it your sole responsibility to find and detain Revel. Spread your men throughout the city. Find him and bring him back. That is your top priority, and if King Adrek attempts to aid in the capture, send him directly to me. He is to remain on his ship until further notice…for his own protection."

Elsa saw something dark move behind the big guard's eyes when she mentioned protecting Adrek. Sigmund didn't believe Revel had committed the crimes he'd been accused of either, which would have been reassuring to the queen had she not currently been in a life or death balancing act. The acting captain nodded once and motioned for him men to follow. Elsa didn't watch them go, instead turning her full attention onto her sister.

"Hey, what's all the commotion about?" Anna asked innocently, watching the guards depart with hesitation.

"Come with me. Now," Elsa growled, taking Anna roughly by the arm and dragged her into an unoccupied room. The princess gave a squeak of protest and attempted to pull herself free, but her sister's grip was like a vice. With one hand, Elsa opened the parlor door and shoved her sister inside, icing the door behind her.

"What the hell is your problem?" Anna stormed, rubbing the sore spot on her upper arm where her sister's nails had dug into her skin.

"What did you do?" Elsa demanded in a harsh whisper, back pressed against the door.

Anna blinked and frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't you dare lie to me!" the queen exploded, anger pulling stalactites of ice from the ceiling above her. She was in front of her sister in two quick strides, their height difference making it so that Anna had to look up at her. "_What. Did. You. Do_."

The princess was frozen, her eyes the size of dinner plates as she shrank under the queen's withering glare. She'd not seen rage like that in Elsa's eyes in a long time, the blue almost nearly overtaken by tendrils of glowing white. It squeezed the breath from her lungs and made her feel small and insignificant. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was regretting her decision to break Revel out, but the damage was done. She had to face her sister now, though she'd hoped for a little more time to come up with a more convincing argument about _why_ she'd thought it a good idea to break the law. But locked in a staring contest with her sister, Anna forgot all the witty things she'd come up with, all the relevant excuses, all the heart felt apologies. What she felt now was threatened, and Anna wasn't a person to take threats lightly, not even those from her sister. Like a branch whipping back up after a passing gust, Anna straightened and squared her shoulders, her own brand of anger coloring her cheeks and lighting a defiant fire in her eyes that clashed with the queen's icy stare.

"What you should have done," Anna accused in a raspy whisper, her hands curling into fists at her side.

"What _I_ should have done?" Elsa echoed, mouth agape in disbelief. "You don't know a damn thing about running a kingdom!"

"This has nothing to do with ruling!" Anna pushed back, advancing a step and purposely invading her sister's personal space. "You can't always be queen, Elsa. You can't always follow your head instead of your heart!"

"Don't bring my emotions into this, Anna. This has everything to do with the fact that you broke a prisoner out of jail and assaulted a guard in the process!"

"He's fine," Anna scoffed. "He was wearing a helmet."

"That doesn't change a damn thing! You assaulted one of my guards while participating in an illegal act. An act that could very well see you put in the same cell as Revel!"

Anna's eyebrows snapped together at the same moment she took half a step back, appalled. "You would throw me in jail for releasing an innocent man? Gee, what a benevolent queen you've become," she sneered.

Elsa pointed dangerously, ice spreading across the carpet in every direction. "Don't you dare mock me. By the law, I could have you arrested, and as queen, I should. Where do you get off thinking you somehow live above our laws?"

"So you'd sacrifice your own sister in order to save face in front of that scum from Asham?" Anna seethed, shoulders bunching as her body tensed. She couldn't believe she was hearing this from Elsa. She'd thought three years together would have mended the wound that thirteen years apart had created, but apparently there was still a fair amount of ice in the queen's heart. "Wow, seems like you should have just left me as a frozen statue on the fjord then. Hell, make Revel into one as well and send Kristoff and Sven packing. Then you can finally be alone with your frozen heart, Snow Queen."

Elsa stood in quivering rage, the storm insider her roaring like a maelstrom. Anna continued, mistakenly viewing her sister's silence as her gaining the upper hand in the argument. "That's right, I said it. All you are is a frigid ruler. It's always Arendelle first and the rest of us second. It doesn't matter if Revel loved you because you're a selfish woman who will only ever love her kingdom above all else. That's what Papa taught you, isn't it? To conceal everything until you can't even feel the beating of your own heart! Well, I hate to break it to you, _dear sister_, but you're not the only one who has the power to command. I may not be queen, but I'm still royalty, and if I say Revel can go free because my sister is too much of a coward to do it herself then—"

Anna heard the backhand before she felt it, her words ripped from her mouth and thrown into empty space. A second later she felt two things simultaneously: her lower back hitting the armrest of the chair behind her as she stumbled, and the right side of her face throbbing from the vicious blow. Trembling, she raised a hand to her cheek, her glassy eyes darting back to stare at her sister. Elsa's face was absolutely devoid of color and so contorted with rage it could have been considered monstrous. The knuckles of her left hand were starting to redden from where they'd cracked across Anna's face.

"You stupid, naïve little girl! I have sacrificed everything for you and this kingdom! _Everything!_" Elsa raged, the temperature in the room dropping to an abominable degree. "My life, my happiness, my future: all of it for the sake of you and Arendelle. Three years ago, I even tried to sacrifice myself for the good of this kingdom, so don't you fucking tell me I have _ever_ been selfish because you've never had the weight of a crown on your pretty little head! You, little sister, are the selfish one, putting your childish wants before your kingdom and your subjects. If I'm the Snow Queen, then you're a petulant child trapped in a grown woman's body. "Did you think that Adrek would somehow forget his brother was here and just leave? That he would forgive us for letting an accused murderer escape? It's time to stop living in a fantasy and grow up!" Storming to the door, Elsa wrenched it open, shards of ice exploding around her and falling to the floor in glittering chunks. "You've single-handedly doomed Arendelle to war because of your actions, unless I do something about it. So I will join the hunt for Revel and bring him back. Until then, you will remain locked in your room until I return. And if you so much as step foot beyond the threshold, I will instruct the guards watching your room to throw you in the dungeon. And this time," the queen said over her shoulder, her words as brittle as lake ice, "you'll find that passage door iced shut." And with that she exited the parlor and slammed the door behind her with enough force she was sure she'd cracked the crown molding.

Anna stood staring at the door in stunned silence for a few moments before the backlash hit her and tears welled in her eyes. Before she could stop herself, the princess collapsed into the chair behind her, a heavy sob tearing from her throat. After the first escaped more came on like a flood, and Anna buried her face in her hands and cried. Everything had gone so wrong so fast. She'd expected Elsa to be mad…but this? Her sister had never raised a hand to her before—ever. It wasn't like she didn't deserve it; all those horrible things she'd said came rushing back, and on top of the burn of her cheek and the embarrassment of making an ass of herself, the weight of her guilt settled on her chest like a boulder, making her sob all the harder. That's where Kristoff found her a little while later, sitting in a chair in the parlor, her eyes puffy and red, cheek swollen and starting to bruise. Her sister was a lot stronger than she looked.

"I really screwed up, Kristoff," she hiccupped, bright blue eyes, made all the brighter from crying, locked on the unlit fireplace.

"We both did," he sighed, picking her up and carrying her from the room. There were no guards waiting for them, whether or not Elsa had actually given the order to detain her sister and brother-in-law was unclear, but regardless, Kristoff took his wife back upstairs and set her on their bed. Gently, he stroked her soft hair and thumbed away a few wayward tears until Anna turned away from him and curled onto her side. Sighing sadly, Kristoff went to the window and pushed it open. From here he could see the courtyard and the knotted mess it had become as guards swarmed the area. And somewhere, amongst the chaos, was the queen, battling her way against an overwhelming tide of crushing guilt, frustration, and confusion.

* * *

><p>Neither Anna or Kristoff knew this, but after leaving the parlor in a rage, the door slamming shut behind her with a resonating bang, Elsa stood in the hallway, frozen like a deer caught by a hunter. For a handful of seconds she wasn't able to catch her breath or control her magic. Ice swept down the hall in either direction, chasing the shadows and climbing the walls in crackling spurts. She felt the onset of tears, the telltale burning in her nose, and hiccupped, fighting back a wave of guilt and disgust. Back against the door for physical support, she couldn't help but hear her sister's sobs, and Elsa's heart all but imploded. Looking down at her hand through the wavy vision of tears, she saw that the knuckles of her left hand were a vivid pink and almost vomited. She'd hit her sister. Not just hit, <em>backhanded<em>, and here was a big difference between a backhand and a slap. A slap was meant to be sobering or to bring someone to heel. It's embarrassing and galling, but it hurts ones pride more than anything. However, a backhand is a power play. It's a show of dominance, a physical, painful reminder that the one struck is not in control and can be harmed. It's not meant to gall but rather to subdue and, more often than not, it leaves a bruise.

Elsa clamped one hand over her mouth to muffle her cries, while the other clutched her chest, tears trailing down her cheeks. Something inside her was breaking apart, splintering like wood under the blade of an axe, and the brand on her shoulder began tingling like trapped electricity. The idea of causing any harm to her sister was sickening, and if she'd had the power, she would have cut off her offending left hand and throw it into the fire.

_But a hand doesn't fly without being told,_ she thought miserably.

Unable to take hearing Anna's sobs, and unable to bring herself to face her let alone apologize, Elsa hurried away from the parlor and took solace in the deep shadows overtaking the hallway. After a few shaky moments, she was able to pull herself together, though her magic was being less that cooperative. Strangely, it manifested in fits and spurts, stuttering to life or winking out entirely when she reached for it. Slightly disturbed, Elsa pushed her worry aside and headed into the courtyard and the chaos that had overtaken it. Sigmund had called every available guard who wasn't already patrolling the castle to join him in the search for Revel. It had been roughly an hour and a half since his escape, meaning he could be anywhere. Arendelle wasn't a large city, so it was very likely Revel had stolen a horse and ridden into the forest or surrounding mountains. If that was the case, tracking hounds wouldn't even be enough to aid in his capture.

Elsa offered her support where she could, directing men and taking reports from returning guards. The northern half of Arendelle was clear and the citizens, who'd emerged confused and frightened from their homes, were told to be on the lookout for the former captain. There was no hiding the truth from them despite the fact that the queen knew he wasn't the one the guards should be looking for. Adrek should be dragged from his ship in chains, Fritz as well. Unlike Anna, Elsa had the instincts of a seasoned monarch and knew the Asham champion wasn't blameless in all of this.

The search went on well into the night, torches lit throughout the kingdom and a soaring bonfire built in the town square to provide both light and direction for the search parties. From the parapets above the gate, Elsa could see squads of guards roaming the streets in long, winding bands like fiery serpents, their glow preceding them even as they disappeared from sight. Few people saw her leaning against the rough stone walls supported by her crossed arm, looking out across her kingdom with flat, lifeless eyes. Not many saw the sadness that pulled at her shoulders, or the hard set of her jaw, or the thin line that had become her mouth. So it was no surprise that no one saw when the queen staggered back from the edge of the parapets with a startled cry, hands pressed against her temples. Dizziness yanked her to the ground, and it took Elsa a few terrifying seconds to realize what was happening.

_Mother-creator, someone approaches,_ a voice like shifting glaciers rumbled in her ears, though she knew that no one but her could hear it.

"M-Marshmallow?" she gasped, blinking to clear her hazy double vision. No, it wasn't simply double vision, Elsa was seeing through both her eyes and the snow golem's. Whatever he was seeing was superimposed over what she was seeing like two different images of stained glass laying atop one another. This had only happened once before a little over a year ago. A group of ice climbers had gotten lost in the mountains and stumbled upon her castle. Marshmallow had reached out to his creator for permission to remove them from the premises. It had been during dinner, and Elsa had accidentally iced the entire table out of startled reflex when the golem had first made contact. She'd completely forgotten he had the ability to communicate with her over long distances. Even now, a year later, the connection was unsettling. Marshmallow, unlike Olaf, wasn't a conscious creature. He lived solely to serve and had few personal thoughts, preferring to react on instinct because that's what Elsa had made him with, the pure instinct to protect her and her family. The golem would not move into action without her express consent.

In the confusing swirl of images, Elsa could make out a snowy, craggy landscape that could only be the highest face of North Mountain. The snow was aglow in the soft moonlight, a silvery blanket that covered nearly every dark surface in ethereal light. Marshmallow was turned in a specific direction, west if she was reading the stars correctly, and watching a gray shape make a steady course towards him. Within a few heartbeats, the shape crested a steep rise and Sven came into focus, but it was who was ridding him that set her pulse aflutter. Revel clung to the reindeer's back, his face crusted with frost and expression set in a grimace.

_Do I engage the stranger accompanying little brother?_ Marshmallow growled.

_Little brother?_ Elsa wondered quizzically until she spotted the tiny cloud hovering above Sven. Olaf was with him.

"Engage but do not harm. Keep the man riding Sven within the castle. I'll be there shortly," she commanded, hauling herself to her feet.

_Yes, mother-creator._

The connection was abruptly severed without any preamble and its absence felt like a chunk had been taken out of her mind. Shaking her head in order to bring Arendelle back into focus, Elsa hurried down to the stables. She didn't need to look into the stall to know that Sven was gone, though she could kick herself for not looking there first. If Anna had sprung Revel from jail it only made sense that he'd also escape the city while riding the reindeer. Only an animal as surefooted as Sven could make the trek up North Mountain in such a short amount of time.

"Stable Master Florren!" she called, pushing the lower half of the door open and looking around expectantly. A burly man in his late forties staggered out of a stall to her right and bowed so deeply his nose could have touched his knees.

"Queen Elsa! Is there something I can do for you?"

"Saddle Gralysningen, immediately," she commanded, "and bring him to the guard shack in the courtyard."

"Yes, Majesty," Florren confirmed with a nod and rushed off to saddle the queen's fjord pony.

Not wasting any time, Elsa ran to the shack where Sigmund was still taking reports and sending men to search different areas. Upon seeing her running toward him, he jumped from his seat and met her half way.

"Majesty?"

"Call your men back, Captain. I know where Revel is."

Sigmund blinked in surprise, his mouth opening a few times before his tongue decided to work again. "Wonderful news, I'll let the nearest squad know so that they can apprehend him."

"Call them back and keep them here," Elsa said quietly, stepping close to the acting captain so that her words were only heard by him. "He's at my ice castle in the mountains."

"How do you know this?" Sigmund frowned, canting his head.

"I have my ways," Elsa replied cryptically. "I will retrieve him myself and bring him back. In the meantime, keep your men here."

"Queen Elsa, I cannot, in good conscience, let you climb into the mountains alone and unprotected. Please, allow me to accompany —"

"I am not without protection, Captain, or have you forgotten that you speak to the Snow Queen?"

Sigmund stiffened, clearly at odds with what he wanted to say and what she should say, but pressed on. "I have not, but, with respect, your magic did little to protect you a year ago when a man very nearly took your life during the spring festival."

"I am aware of the risk, Captain, and I command you to remain here. Revel is not a threat to me. Nothing in the mountains is." Just then, stable master Florren appeared with Gralysningen, a cool gray fjord pony with black and white zigzag designs cut into his cropped mane and snow white legs. It had been a while since the queen had last ridden, horses were her sister's thing not her, but Gralysningen nickered happily as she swung into the saddle and took the reins. She shifted in order to get comfortable and couldn't help but feel the power of the beast under her when the fjord pony cantered sideways.

"Majesty," Sigmund pressed, grabbing the horse's bridle and holding it in place, "please, this is ill-advised. Let us handle this."

"This mess is my doing, Captain," Elsa sighed quietly, offering him a helpless smile before her queenly mask snapped in place. "My sister is acting Majesty until I return. Defer to her and Baron Kristoff. I will return shortly."

Sigmund stood helpless as the queen turned Gralysningen in the direction of the gates and spur the beast into a shockingly fast gallop. Though it had been a while, Elsa remembered how to handle him and turned him sharply towards the mountains, wind ripping at her clothes and pulling at her hair. People in the town watched, mouths agape, as their queen galloped past them. They noted the determined set of her face and her strange choice of clothing, Elsa still wore her sparring uniform from earlier that morning, reminding many of the paintings they'd seen of warrior queens riding into battle. Following the shore of the fjord in the opposite direction of the harbor and the sea beyond, Elsa spotted an opening between two docked rowboats and made a sudden decision. A crafty smile worked onto her lips as she steered Gralysningen towards the water. If the fjord pony was worried about barreling straight towards a body of water he didn't show it, picking up speed obediently when Elsa gently urged him with her heels.

"Let's see if you remember how this works," Elsa mumbled, patting the horse's wide neck and feeling a wild thrill spread across her body. The moment his hooves should have hit water, which moving at the speed they were traveling would have ended in a disastrous tumble, Elsa gripped the reins as tightly as she could and sent her magic trailing down onto the horse's hooves. Magic bloomed under him in an impressive explosion of ten-foot snowflakes, each heavy hoof beat spreading iridescent blue and white ice in every direction. Despite her situation, despite the daunting task that lay ahead of her, Elsa couldn't help but let out a triumphant laugh as Gralysningen galloped across the fjord on a bridge of iridescent ice.

In seconds horse and rider were under the cover of the forest, the queen's magic lending the big pony added speed and surer footing. Elsa knew she'd reach North Mountain in half the time it took Sven and Revel to get there, but the question was what would she say to him when she finally saw him? Their last face-to-face conversation had ended poorly, and Elsa didn't know if she had the courage to do what she knew must be done. Hunkering down, the forest flying by in a blur of silver moonlight and acrid black shadow, the Arendelle queen leaned into the wind and lost herself in the power of her steed. Gralysningen knew the way, she just had to provide the added push to get him there before her kingdom imploded into war.

* * *

><p>Revel couldn't remember a time he'd been so sore and so cold. Well, that wasn't entirely true; his years living with the poachers after fleeing the burning of Brekemel had provided him with plenty of cold nights and sore muscles. Still, he couldn't help but wince and stifle a groan every time Sven took a sharp turn or jumped over an obstacle. Nearly ten years as a guard had strengthened him in many different ways, but that didn't mean his inner thighs and lower back weren't screaming knots of agony. And to make matters even more uncomfortable, the higher they climbed the colder it became. Revel was suddenly very thankful that Anna had forced him to don one of Kristoff's old ice harvesting outfits. Despite still being three sizes too big, the wool helped stave off the chill and kept him warm. Even the oversized hat was a blessing until it was blown off by a savagely cold gust of wind that brought with it hints of mountain frost and flurries. Hunkering low, Revel clutched the coarse fur on either side of Sven's neck.<p>

His original plan was to ditch his guide and ride once they reached the base of North Mountain. It being April, the surrounding forest was usually thawed by now, meaning he could escape without leaving any visible footprints. Not that he was worried about Olaf and Sven tracking him even if there were. His years with the poachers and the hunting he did while off duty had taught him how to move through the forest while remaining practically invisible. However, his carefully crafted plan was derailed when they encountered the tail end of a wintery storm winding its way into the craggy peaks. Apparently, winter hadn't entirely left the countryside behind. Desperate as he was to put as much distance between himself and Arendelle, Revel wasn't a stupid man who took nature for granted. He had no provisions to speak of. The sack Anna had given him contained only a pair of his clothes, boots, a few days' worth of edible provisions and a small knife, leaving him with nothing to make a shelter with and no real weapon to defend himself. Spring was a tumultuous time in the mountains. Large predators would be waking from their slumber and searching for a quick meal. More than once, Revel had come face to face with wolves and bears while hunting and had no wish to meet either of the large animals without proper protection. As much as he hated to admit it, he was stuck on the back of the galloping reindeer until a new plan came to mind.

Three hours later he was still trying formulate that plan when he caught the first glimpse of the ice castle and all thoughts of running left his head momentarily. It was a treasure nestled in the dark crags of ugly, ancient stone; a masterpiece hidden away from the eyes of the world like a precious jewel. Revel had no earthly idea how Elsa had crafted the multi-leveled monstrosity in only a few short hours. Hell, he didn't even know if it had taken her that long, but regardless, its beauty was breathtaking. During the day, the castle somehow absorbed the rays from the sun like a sponge, light shimmering through the intricate fractals and facets like a diamond in the daylight, and later, once the sun was a memory behind the horizon, that ambient light would shine through the ice like a beacon that could be seen for miles. Purple, blue, red, pink, white, orange, lavender, and colors that had no earthly names glowed within the smooth crystalline ice, it's spires and vaulted peaks reaching up to touch the star dusted heavens above.

It took Sven another couple of minutes to climb the final few slopes snaking around the mountain, the bull reindeer knowing exactly where to tread in the knee deep snow. They passed through a tight crack between two soaring peaks, dark stone walls swallowing all light save for the snippets of stars that peeked out every now and then as the clouds rolled past. Still, the reindeer knew where to go, and so did the little snowman who hopped down just as they rounded a corner and stepped out onto a wide ledge. Revel glanced over the edge and swallowed. The drop alone was two hundred feet to the nearest ledge, but even that was uncertain in the shadows. It could be farther. Regardless, it was a lethal fall he had no wish making this particular evening.

"It's a lot less snowy up here than the last time Sven and I visited big brother," Olaf chuckled happily as he waddled towards a nondescript ripple of stone. It was near invisible in the darkness, but Revel knew there was a split in the mountain that opened to another wide ledge centered in front of the ice castle and the chasm that split the castle's foundation from the main mountain peak like a moat.

"How is this less snowy?" Revel shivered, arms crossed tightly across his chest. Even through the added wool layers he could feel the biting cold every time the wind blew, and it was blowing something fierce the closer they got to the castle and the summit of the mountain. He'd slid from the reindeer's back, desperate to work feeling back into his stiff legs and back, but regretted that decision rather quickly. The former captain sank into knee deep, bone chilling snow that bypassed his layered clothing and soaked into his oversized boots and pants legs. Revel trudged after Sven, hissing from the bitter cold and tucking his hands into his armpits for warmth. He hunched his shoulders to build heat along his core and clenched his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering.

"Sven almost couldn't make the last trip home. We got caught in a storm and had to hide with Marshmallow," Olaf explained as he disappeared between the stones, with Sven following behind with an excited grunt as if he'd understood what Olaf was saying.

Watching them go, Revel knew this might be his only chance at escaping. If he hurried and didn't stop, he could make it back into the forest by dawn and build a shelter under a fallen tree. Once situated, he'd wait out the search parties that were surely looking for him and move off at dusk the next day. Glancing over his shoulder, Revel stared down at the snowy, winding path behind him and swallowed. He didn't doubt he'd be able to pick his way down, but there were too many unaccounted variables; the very important one being the unpredictability of the weather. North Mountain wasn't known for its kind weather. It was an inhospitable place, a cruel place, a place where humans rarely visited because of the difficulty in reaching it. Elsa had chosen the location for her palace of isolation perfectly. There was also the matter of it also being the dead of night. Revel might have been a capable hunter, but he didn't have the ability to see in the dark, and descending a mountain at night, in the snow, with no provisions or equipment would be suicide. They'd find his frozen corpse years later huddled against a boulder or smashed to pieces at the bottom of a gully.

_You wouldn't have to worry about running from your brother then. Dead is dead._ Revel thought to himself darkly.

_But dead means you can never see Elsa again,_ a deeper part of himself insisted. A sharp pang of longing sliced through his chest, and he turned in the direction of Arendelle with a sad sigh. Seeing Elsa again wasn't even a possibility. The farther he was from her the better, but that didn't mean he was running willingly. Every step he took away from the kingdom that had become his home for the past decade was its own tiny war. Even at the top of one of the tallest mountains, Revel could feel the magnetic pull of Arendelle and the woman he'd given his heart to. He idly wondered what she was doing right at this second. Surely she was asleep, letting the guards handle his escape.

_Fool, you know she's out there looking for you right now. She could be heading up this mountain with a contingent of guards to capture you and bring you back. _

It wasn't fear that he felt at that thought but rather sadness. It had been a mistake letting the princess push him into running. Anna's heart was in the right place, but really it was just perpetuating the problem. Adrek wouldn't rest until his brother was caught, and if that meant declaring war on Arendelle and its queen, so be it. Revel knew his brother could be a ruthless man when pushed, especially when he held someone like Fritz in close company. So there was a sudden fork in the former captain's path, and he had to choose which road to take. Go back to Arendelle and turn himself in, or continue to run and hope that Adrek left Elsa and her kingdom alone. Really, there wasn't any choice in the matter for him. He would never let anything happen to his former lover. Even if she didn't feel for him in the same way, Revel would gladly give his life for her and her family.

"Hey, are you coming, cause you look really cold?"

Revel turned towards Olaf. It was still a little disconcerting spending time with an animated snowman. Of course the former captain had met Olaf in the past, he was a regular fixture in the castle and oftentimes followed Anna and Kristoff around, but he'd never had any one-on-one time with him. Truly, there was a childlike innocence to him seen whenever he smiled or laughed or even walked. Tossing a look over his shoulder at the deep depression Sven's hooves had made in the snow, Revel made his decision and followed the snowman. He'd leave at first light and return to Arendelle.

"It is rather cold," the former captain ventured as they slid through the gap in the rocks and stepped out onto the second ledge. "I hadn't expected there to be—"

Revel broke off and stared in awestruck wonder at the castle. Even at a distance it had been beautiful, but up close? Up close there weren't any words that could describe the shier wonder of it, so Revel just settled with staring in slack-jawed amazement. As a young boy, his father had taken him, Adrek, and Symon on a few of his excursions to Venice, the birthplace of the Renaissance. Within the confines of the watery city, Revel had seen architecture that could bring a tear to the eye and artwork that could render a person speechless. He'd marveled at the grandeur and beauty around him and never thought he'd ever see it's equal. Apparently all he had to do was climb a mountain to see something that made Renaissance art seem dull. Everything paled in comparison to Elsa's ice castle, and it very nearly squeezed the breath from his lungs despite this being his second time venturing to it. The first had been three years ago while accompanying Prince Hans.

The memory of that dark day lit a small fire in his blood. Had he known Hans' plot from the start, Revel would have never let him near the queen. He wouldn't have let those Weselton thugs within a hundred yards of her either. He'd known they were suspect from the start, Duke Weselton himself was a twisted old man used to getting his way, but Hans had been a complete surprise. Hans had gotten the closest to the royal sisters, had gotten the closest to taking Elsa's life on the frozen fjord. Revel remembered in great detail the battle that had ensued upon their arrival in this very spot three years ago, how the snow golem had risen out of the snow to tower above them. Ice spines spring like the quills of a porcupine across his body. Jagged fangs elongating within his mouth and his roar echoed for miles. Revel had moved on instinct and commanded his men to engage if only to give Hans an opening to chase after the Weselton brothers.

But today there was no massive twenty foot snow golem standing guard next to the arching ice bridge that connected the mountain to the castle. It was just an open area blanketed by silver snow. Olaf was moving towards the bridge with Sven in tow, yammering about something or other. Revel had tuned him out, his eyes wandering the expanse of the castle, until Olaf turned towards him and his little face lit up with a massive smile.

"Big brother, there you are! Were we supposed to play hide and seek again?"

It was then that Revel felt two things simultaneously: one was a looming presence behind him that blotted out the stars, and two was a blast of cold air washing against the back of his neck as something growled gutturally behind him. Suddenly, a hard and unmercifully cold hand closed around his waist and shoulders and hauled him off his feel as if he were nothing more than a doll. There wasn't even time to utter a startled cry, earth and sky switching places in a dizzying flip.

"Marshmallow, no!" Olaf shouted in alarm, waddling as fast as his little legs would carry him after the snow golem. "He's Sven and my friend! Don't throw him off! He's supposed to be here!"

Marshmallow either didn't hear or was choosing to ignore the snowman because he turned wordlessly towards the ice castle, his heavy steps remarkably leaving no print behind. Revel suddenly remembered Anna's story of her and Kristoff's chase from the mountain, how the golem had tried to physically throw them off, and began to struggle in the inhuman ice grip around his torso.

"Hey…hey! Put me down! I'll leave ok? Just set me down over there and—"

Revel shrank back when the golem stopped mid stride and lifted him nearer to his face, eerie hollow eyes squinted into a scowl. Unlike Olaf, there wasn't a curious intelligence in those deep pits or in the slightly lumpy, Neanderthal-ish sweep of his brow and face. Marshmallow had been created for one purpose and that was to be a sentinel, but there was still a spark of life in him and the knowledge that he had a task to complete. He was a guard, he did as he was told, and would do so until his mission was complete. This is what Revel saw and he swallowed hard because there was no reasoning with a creature like that.

"Mother-creator said you can't leave. She's coming to get you," Marshmallow rumbled, his voice an extraordinary deep baritone.

"Elsa's coming?" Olaf stopped his fufutile shoving on the golem's icy knee, and it was like a switch was thrown. Suddenly, his little face lit up, stick hands covering his mouth as he began to bounce around. "Elsa's coming! See? I told you she loves you! Oh this is perfect, now you two can be together forever!"

Not for the first time, Revel felt his blood run cold. He knew he'd been wrong to leave but had done it anyway in the thin hope that Adrek would chase him away from Arendelle. If Elsa came up the mountain to get him, how was he going to explain to her that he'd had every intention of returning? Would she believe him or would it come across as a flimsy lie meant to placate her? Would she be happy or angry to see him, and would it just be her coming and not a contingent of guards, both Arendelle and Asham?

"Olaf, get him to put me down!" Revel shouted as he continued to struggle.

"Why? He's just taking you inside," the little snowman smiled. "You'll love the ice palace, just wait!"

"I can't be here!"

"Why? This is the best place on the whole mountain! Plus, you're safest here!"

"I know, it's beautiful, but if Elsa's coming… she and I — we— Olaf please…"

Olaf made a friendly scoffing noise and pushed away with his arms. "Elsa's gonna be happy to see you. You can give each other warm hugs and stuff…though not too warm because apparently babies happen when hugs are to warm." The little snowman laughed and bounded after Marshmallow who was starting to climb the stairs arching over the ravine.

"Wait, what? She said what?"

"That's what Anna told me. Who knew a hug could be too warm."

"I…" Revel stammered, mouth falling open, all thoughts of wiggling out of Marshmallow's vicelike grip gone. He wasn't prepared to have this conversation or trail of thoughts. "Olaf, I don't think it works like that."

"Sure it does! Babies come from love, and where is there more love than in a hug?"

It was such innocent logic Revel didn't have the heart to correct him. It wasn't like Olaf would ever be in the predicament of creating children…could he? Had Elsa…?

_I'm not even going to entertain that thought. Nope, we're not going down that road today._

Giving up all hope of escape and blush a free conversation, Revel went limp with a groan in the golem's hand and hung there, too tired and frustrated for words. He'd find a backdoor or something in the castle and leave that way, but for now he'd play the role of helpless prisoner….again.

Marshmallow edged open the massive double doors with his hip and scooted inside, careful not to bang the human in his grip against anything as he did. Sven and Olaf stayed behind, the latter of the two shouting that he'd wait here for Elsa. Suddenly, the little snowman seemed to remember something and called for the golem to stop. Marshmallow did and slowly turned, his face set in a deep scowl.

"I almost forgot! I brought this back to you!" Olaf grinned and shoved a tiny stick hand into his abdomen just left of his first three black coal buttons, or as far as anatomy went for a three snowball snowman, and withdrew something shinny. Revel squinted at it in the soft ambient light emanating from the castle but couldn't make out what it was. Apparently, Marshmallow knew exactly what it was because a tiny smile twisted the edges of his curvy mouth.

"It looks better on you, big brother," Olaf said happily and trotted up to the golem, gently laying a triangular gold tiara in Marshmallows only free hand. Revel stared at Elsa's old coronation crown, words escaping him, because it was absolutely the most bazar exchange he'd ever seen. She'd mentioned it had gone missing up in the mountains, but apparently that wasn't entirely the case. With a satisfied grunt, Marshmallow turned and entered the castle, the doors swinging shut with a resounding bang behind him.

"Are you going to put me down, or am I just going to hang in your hand like a sack of potatoes?" Revel sighed, letting his arms and legs flop around.

Marshmallow growled grumpily but set him down with surprising gentleness, making sure his feet were on the ground before letting go. Revel took several slippery steps away from the golem and shook himself out, adjusting his baggy clothes and sweeping his mussed hair out of his eyes. The two regarded each other for a few moments, two unhappy souls trapped in a massive ice palace.

The first thing that Revel realized once he'd gotten his bearing was that it was strangely silent within the castle walls. Silent and slightly warm. Even while walking through Arendelle castle, the sharp trill of wind rushing through gaps in the old stones or rattling the led glass windows could be heard every once in a while, and drafts were absolutely normal in some of the older parts of the structure. It was just the sounds of a palace, but none of that could be heard here in the ice castle. Despite it being at the top of a mountain where the wind was a constant, blustery companion, Revel could have heard a pin drop it was so silent. The effect was like stuffing his ears with cotton after the continuous noise of the mountain.

"Is there any chance you'd let me go?" Revel ventured, taking a stab in the dark. His voice echoed loudly around him, bounded and rebounded in the spacious chamber.

In response, Marshmallow sank into a sitting position in front of the door with a thunderous boom. Glaring, the golem took the crown Olaf had given him, surreptitiously took it between two massive ice fingers, and set it atop his head in a very regal way.

"Mother-creator said you stay," he rumbled, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child. "So you stay."

Sighing, Revel slung his pack over his back and turned to face the rest of the great hall behind him. Not surprisingly, it was stunning, carved entirely out of near translucent blue ice that soared dizzyingly above him. The walls, the floor, the pillars, the vaults in the ceiling, the sweeping double staircase: all of it was perfectly symmetrical and perfectly flawless. Not a crack anywhere, not a blemish or a bump to be found. It was like standing in the center of an icy cathedral, a Notre Dame built at the top of the highest mountain in the land. Revel felt a quiet reverence swirl in his chest the longer he stood in awed wonder. Truly, this was a place of peace and stillness, built for quiet moments and beautiful sunrises, and not for the first time he felt a stab of want arc through him. He wanted Elsa here with him but under different circumstances. He wanted her by his side, the two tangled together, alone and at peace, reveling in the silence and in the intimacy and warmth of their close bodies.

_It's a pretty dream but one that can't come true. Not now anyway._

Carefully, because even if the floor looked like marble with massive snowflakes suspended within it was still frictionless ice, the former captain made his way towards the stairs and the chambers beyond, stopping momentarily to marvel at the frozen, three tiered fountain centered between the staircases.

_It won't kill me to explore a little bit and get my bearings,_ Revel reasoned as he started to climb, aware that Marshmallow was watching every move he made. Surely he'd have enough time to change into whatever sensible clothing Anna had provided before the queen arrived. And maybe, if luck was on his side, he'd even think of something to say to her once she got there.

_Fool, _he thought gripping the cool banister, _you're horrible with words when it comes to women._

* * *

><p>Sigmund couldn't remember feeling this level of stress before. He could practically feel the ulcers forming in his turbulent stomach every time a search group approached with more grim news that they had yet to recapture Revel. The big guard was on the verge of chewing on a lump of packed ash in order to settle his stomach. It was embarrassing, it was aggravating, it spiked his blood pressure and was everything Sigmund hated about being in command and then some. For the life of him, he couldn't recall why he'd ever coveted Revel's position. There was nothing glamorous about being guard captain when your top priority was participating in a man hunt that was primarily your fault. There was nothing glamorous about getting ripped apart by visiting royalty when he demanded to know what happened and why his brother had been permitted to escape.<p>

_Permitted,_ Sigmund growled, his anger hot and dangerously close to the surface. It galled him to no end that the Asham king would _assume_ that he and his men, that Queen Elsa herself, had just _allowed_ the former captain to slip away. The big guard had to ball his meaty hands into fists and bite into his cheek until it bled in order to keep himself from smacking Adrek and that sneering little shit Fritz. The both of them were a dangerous pair and made the knife scar between Sigmund's shoulder blades tingle. Neither of them were men he'd ever turn his back to, ever.

"How inept are you that you let one man, in chains, under guard, slip through your fingers?" Adrek had seethed, face twisted and flushed a deep scarlet. "I demand to speak to the queen! Now!"

"Queen Elsa is spearheading the search herself and has named her sister Acting Majesty until she returns," Sigmund had grated out, back so stiff he was starting to cramp.

"So the queen rides off to bring back her wayward lover. How quaint," Fritz said drolly with a lazy yawn that would have felt at home in a penny opera drama. Adrek snapped a look at his champion, a silent command to shut his mouth, but the slight to the queen's name and honor had already been made, and Sigmund was spoiling for a fight. He didn't think he could straighten any taller, but he did and the fire in his eyes could have incinerated an entire armada to embers at a hundred yards.

"You may be foreign royalty, _Highness_," he rumbled, standing to his full height which was a good four inches taller than the king of Asham, "but this is Arendelle, and to speak ill of the queen or any member of the royal family is a jailable offence. See to it your champion keeps his tongue behind his teeth because I would have no trouble laying a fucking poker across it should he speak ill of my queen again."

Adrek, purple with rage for being talked to in such a way, did his best to defuse the situation by ordering Fritz back to the ship and offering a snarled apology to the big guard. Sigmund had nodded his acceptance but refused to leave the wharf until Adrek was back on his ship and out of the way. It took a few reluctant minutes, but eventually the Asham king returned to his quarters and Sigmund had thought the matter dropped until one of his squads reported seeing two riders leave the docks and head into the mountains along the same path the queen had taken. None of the Arendelle guards had crossed the fjord and all of the Asham guards were accounted for. So that left Sigmund with one grim possibility that pushed stomach acid into the back of his throat and made him nauseous. Adrek and Fritz knew were the queen had gone and were on their way to the ice castle.

That thought rang over and over again in his head like a chime as he ascended the staircase to the residency wing and stopped in front of the princess's door. Shaking, because he knew he'd screw things up from the start and was doing a pathetically horrible job at being captain, Sigmund mustered up his courage and knocked gently three times. A moment later the door cracked open and Baron Kristoff was there looking just as haggard and tired as the rest of them.

"Captain Sigmund," Kristoff nodded but didn't step aside or usher him into the room.

"Baron Kristoff, I apologize for the late hour."

"Please, it's not like any of us are sleeping anyway," the mountain man mumbled.

"I…very true, sir. Please, I've come to speak to her Acting Majesty, Princess Anna. It…it involves the queen," Sigmund said, fighting to keep from hanging his head.

"What'd she do this time?" Sigmund heard Anna call bitterly from the room beyond, her voice raspy. "Barricade the fjord? Maybe even sink a few ships? Wouldn't that be a travesty."

"Anna," Kristoff admonished gently and turned towards her after motioning for Sigmund to enter.

The big guard took three strides into the room and stopped at a respectful distance, fixing his eyes ahead in the usual thousand yard stare he adopted whenever speaking directly to royalty. "Your sister has departed the kingdom in search of the escaped prisoner."

"Yeah, thank you, I already knew that," Anna grumbled from her place at the foot of the bed.

"She believes Revel is hiding out in her ice palace," Sigmund frowned, unsure why the princess was being so…cold towards her sister or the situation. Glancing out of his peripheral vision, the big guard couldn't help but notice how disheveled Anna looked, and certainly couldn't miss the large bruise spreading across the princess's right cheek just under her eye. His jaw clenched so tightly his teeth ached, and he turned his burning attention towards Kristoff. Had he hit her? God help him if he had…

"Again, I already know this," Anna said, interrupting Sigmund's thoughts. "That's the only reason she'd make me Acting Majesty. Is there something new you've come to tell me, or is this just a follow up visit?"

_To hell with this,_ Sigmund thought and dropped his rigid posture like a heavy pack from his shoulders. He turned his full attention onto the princess and let his message sink in. "Princess Anna, two riders were spotted leaving the wharf a short time after your sister rode into the mountains. I suspect that the Adrek and his champion are following the queen without her knowledge. What their intentions are, I don't know, but, speaking frankly, I can't imagine anything good can come from it. As Acting Majesty, I ask your permission to—"

"Adrek and Fritz are gone?" Anna gasped, jumping to her feet. A bright fever lit her eyes, the flames of desperate fear making the blue shine. She'd begun to shake. "Damn it, you were supposed to make sure they stayed in their ship!"

"I sincerely appolo—"

"Get Kai! Now!" Anna shouted and pointed for Sigmund to get moving, which he did at an almost run. A few moments later he returned to the princess's room with a nervous Kai at his side, but only Anna waited for them. Kristoff was gone.

"Acting Majesty, what's going—" the manservant stopped when he noticed that Anna was dressed in winter clothing complete with heavy wool cloak and fur lined boots. "Princess Anna, where are you—"

"I'm going to go get my sister," she said hurriedly, her fingers fumbling with the clasp of her cloak. Didn't that line sound familiar? "Kai, you're Acting Majesty now. Take care of things until I get back."

"But…but…" he stammered, eyes wide. "Princess Anna, you can't just—"

"I can, and I just did!" Anna snapped and made a strange gesture in the air while muttering in broken Latin. "There, everything said in Latin is official. You're Acting Majesty until I get back."

"Princess Anna, please listen to reason!" Kai shouted after her as she shoved her way past him and a gawking Sigmund and hurried towards the stairs. The captain was faster and caught up with her, baring her path with his bulk, arms spread wide.

"Princess, I was forced to watch your sister ride off into the mountains alone. I cannot let you do the same. Not while you're in your current condition. It would be too dangerous. Please, listen to your chamberlain."

"You don't understand! My sister knows, but she doesn't at the same time!" Anna shouted and attempted to push Sigmund aside, fear and adrenaline making her exceptionally strong at the moment. The big guard had to grab hold of the railing in order to keep from toppling down the stairs.

"What are you talking about?" he managed as he hauled himself upright.

"She's read the letter, but she doesn't know what Fritz said! I never got a chance to tell her. If she reveals to Adrek that she knows about it, he'll kill her! Kai, they're going to kill them both!"

Kristoff had told her about the letter he and the queen had found in Revel's room. It certainly brought some of the nagging questions she'd had about Revel's past and his flight from Asham into a clearer light, but it had done little to diminish the hurt Anna felt towards what her sister had done in the parlor. Elsa had never raised a hand to her before, so the confrontation they'd had was exceptionally jarring and hurtful. So jarring, in fact, that Anna had forgotten what she'd been meaning to tell Elsa in the first place. All that changed the minute she was told Fritz and Adrek were gone. That's when fear had gripped her so completely she feared she'd go into early labor. Fritz had told Revel in the dungeon that if Elsa really did know about the letter and the reason for Adrek's disinheritance he'd kill her, and Anna, in the chaos that had taken place after she'd sprung Revel, had completely forgotten to tell her sister about Fritz's threats. Well, the queen certainly knew about the letter, and so did Revel. What better way to be rid of two witnesses than to follow them into the seclusion of the mountains and strike without warning?

Unbidden tears welled in her eyes, and Anna was powerless to stop them from falling as she came to grips with the crushing fact that it was her fault Elsa was even heading into the mountains…again. "Please, Sigmund, they're going to kill her. She knows too much. She'll confront them…she'll—she'll challenge them, and—"

Going to his knees on the stair, which pretty much brought the exceptionally tall man eye level with the princess, Sigmund took Anna's quivering hand and bowed over it. "Princess, I swore on my life that I would protect her Majesty and her family. If what you say is true, then your sister is in grave danger. I will take a squad of my best men up the mountain and stop the King Adrek before he can strike. I swear it!"

"You're not going anywhere without me. That's an order," Anna hissed, and the matter was settled then and there. Sigmund would never defy a royal command, but he could make damn sure the princess was protected at all costs. So much to Kai's dismay, captain and princess descended the stairs and quickly made their way towards the stables where Kristoff waited. He seemed to grasp what was happening fairly quickly and nodded his thanks towards Sigmund as he helped his wife into his cart and jumped into the seat beside her.

The guard captain rallied a few of his best men and met them at the gate, mounted on a large black and gray horse. Four other mounted guards joined him, grim faced, crossbows slung over their backs and swords hanging from their hips. They nodded once to the royal party as Kristoff snapped the reigns, and fjord pony surged into motion with a tremendous jerk. In no time the party was climbing the steep trail that wound into the mountains, eventually ending at the tallest peak in the kingdom. Clinging to the foot rest in front of her, Anna hoped and even dared to pray that they weren't too late.

* * *

><p>"Dragging me up the side of a mountain…" Elsa grumbled to herself, repeating the mantra that had become her preferred mutter of choice for the past hour. She ducked under a particularly low branch, sticky sap tacking to her fingers and forearm, and glowered at the back of her horses head as if she could find an answer in his mane. When nothing came, she huffed an irritated sigh.<p>

It went without saying that her mood had not improved much since leaving Arendelle. Though the ride was a rush she'd not experienced in a long while it soon became a tedious climb that left both horse and rider exhausted and sore. The queen had spurred Gralysningen as hard as she dared during the first legs of her journey, but apparently she'd pushed him too hard too fast. Already he was slick with sweat and blowing steaming breaths into the air in an attempt to catch his breath. On a good day, a trek to the ice castle took a normal horse three to four hours to make. Sven could make it in two and a half to three because he was used to the terrain, but Gralysningen had remarkably made three quarters of the journey in a little over an hour, setting a new record. But at what price, Elsa didn't know. She didn't dare spur him on for fear of him collapsing.

And that only served to darken her mood. She was putting her horse and herself under unnecessary stress all because one man couldn't have enough faith in her to make things right. Did Revel know how hard she'd fought for him? Did he realize that by doing this he'd doomed himself and her kingdom in one fell swoop?

"What the hell did you think this would solve?" she growled, conjuring an image of Revel's face into her mind. "You think this _endears_ yourself to me? You think it _valiant_? You think it _smart_? Oh yes, lets run away into the mountains at my sister's prodding because it makes so much more sense running from your problems than facing them head on."

_Just like you did when you froze your kingdom_, a voice whispered to her from the darkness, and not for the first time, Elsa pulled up short and spun around in her saddle. This was the second time she'd heard voices in the woods, and she was almost certain she'd heard footsteps in the trees beside her, muffled but distinct. There had even been the faint growl of something large hunkered in the shadows that accompanied the voice the first time, and she'd spurred Gralysningen into a heavy trot to put some distance between her and the predators of the forest.

Seeing nothing and sensing about the same, the queen turned hesitantly back around but was unable to shake the niggling feeling of being watched. It took a few silent minutes for her pulse to settle and her mind to catch up. Maybe she was just hearing things. Maybe it was just the wind…she doubted both explanations but couldn't come up with anything better at the moment. So she turned back to her grumblings but was unable to push aside the returned feeling of guilt that accompanied the phantom voice's taunt. Funny how three years later the roles would be reversed and it would be her and not Anna trudging up the side of a mountain in order to drag a loved one back to Arendelle.

_As if I could drag him back. Clearly he wants to run, so why am I even bothering?_

_ Because you love him,_ a deeper part of herself answered back matter-of-factly.

Elsa didn't know if that was the case anymore. If anything, she felt confused by the whole situation and would like to take a moment to compile her thoughts into something cohesive. She knew she was angry with Revel for running, but there was also a fair bit of hurt mixed in. He'd run without ever giving her the chance to make things right. She wasn't going to let Adrek take him away, she'd never even entertained the thought, but it seemed like he didn't have any faith in her abilities to protect him.

_I thought that one of the hallmarks of loving someone was trust. Why couldn't you have just trusted me?_

The same thought had crossed her mind when the queen thought back to her confrontation with Anna. Why couldn't her sister have just trusted her and given her some time to work. Didn't Anna know that she walked a tightrope every day and knew how to maneuver through the murky depths of bargaining?

_Why can't anyone in my kingdom trust me?_

The answer to that question wasn't one she wanted to hear, but it came to her anyway. Because for thirteen years she'd shut herself in her room and refused to come out. Three years of open rule hardly made up for the near decade and a half she remained isolated. Of course her subject, her sister, her…lover…couldn't trust her entirely. How could they put their faith in a woman they hardly knew?

_I have so much to make amends for,_ Elsa thought sadly and slumped a little in her saddle. But her moment of grief passed and was replaced with the smoldering embers of her anger and indignation. She knew half of this was her fault, but Revel hadn't helped matters, and neither had Anna.

"Damn that man!" she shouted when her anger sparked into a sudden flame and threw out a hand to release the pent up magic swirling in her palm. The blast would have been enough to send an icy projectile through a tree or at the very least freeze it, but a concussion like a powder keg explosion rocked the area as javelins of smooth ice exploded from her hand, nearly throwing her from the saddle. Gralysningen reared, eyes rolling with fear. Elsa clung desperately to his neck, stroking him and trying her hardest to keep him from bolting. After a moment he settled, grunting and stamping unhappily but at the very least still.

"I'm sorry, Gralysningen. I'm sorry," Elsa soothed in a whisper, unable to pull her eyes away from the destruction she'd just caused. It was the ballroom during her coronation all over again. She'd uprooted at least three trees, wickedly sharp flutes of ice impaling full grown oaks and pulling them from their earthen bed. The rest of the forest beyond the wave of translucent spines was encased in jagged quills of ice that stretched away from her like splayed fingers. Even the queen's right hand was encased, ice spiraling up her forearm like a wintery gauntlet. Distantly, through the haze of her shock, she recalled the fragments of her last dream and Saja's fading words.

_Pain is weakness. You have to control it,_ the Frost Born had shouted._ But what the hell did that mean? _

Was it a jab at Elsa's own mental weakness because she'd once again gotten worked up over a man, or did it have to do with physical pain? Very few things the Frost Born told her made sense anyway, her messages cryptic at the best of times. So here was yet another puzzle piece laid before her, yet another unanswered question to pile on top of the rest.

"Focus," she whispered to herself and closed her eyes. Unbidden, Revel's words drifted back to her. "Your ice is a part of you that lives and breathes alongside every aspect of your life. It's as much a part of you as your arm and leg, which means you solely control it." Funny how he still had the ability to calm her after everything that had happened.

So the queen did as he had suggested, sinking into herself and focusing on the swirling mass of arctic blue energy behind her solar plexus. It's wasn't hard to realize that her magic was as agitated as she was, bucking and tumbling like a flag in the wind. Slowly, gently, Elsa reached for it and willed it to calm, to still its writhing and be at peace. Something deep within her shifted aside, what it was she didn't know and couldn't name, but it unblocked the flow of power to her extremities and filled her with tingling energy. Opening her eyes, the queen let out an icy breath and felt her finger crust with frost. A blue ball of undulating light appeared in her turned up palm, a sure sign that everything, for the moment, was at peace.

Taking the reins again, Elsa nudged Gralysningen forward, careful not to spur him into anything heavier than a trot. The terrain was only going to get worse the higher they climbed and she wanted him rested enough to navigate through the deep snow that usually blanketed the mountains this time of year. Spring may be happening along the coast in Arendelle, but winter was almost an eternal presence in the mountains.

Half an hour later, Elsa slid from the saddle and felt the knee keep snow crust under her feet. It was one of the added benefits of her power that few people realized she had. The queen never broke the surface of any snowfall, walking atop the fragile crust of even the deepest, most powdery drifts as easily as if she were walking on a marble floor. It was an aspect of her icy abilities that she greatly appreciated as it made making journeys likes these into the mountains that much easier. Gralysningen wasn't as lucky, he was not a magic horse after all, but with the queen by his side he was able to walk atop the snow as well with a little added support on Elsa's end. Together, the two made the last legs of the journey up into the halls of dark stone and silver snow.

"For the time being, you stay here," Elsa said, patting Gralysningen warm flank after conjuring an icy overhang for him to stand under and tying off his reins. She didn't know how he'd react to Marshmallow and didn't want to take the chance of getting thrown from his back. The fjord pony nickered his thanks and nudged his mistress with his nose as she moved off to find the snow golem.

Finding him wasn't really necessary. The second she was within sight of the castle the golem, as if sensing her nearness, emerged from the castled and trudged towards her with thundering steps. Elsa stopped a little ways away from the ice bridge, remembering when she'd traversed the ravine for the first time, her power washing free of her body in a wave of almost orgasmic ecstasy. Thirteen years of back build can lead to one hell of an explosion, but thankfully she'd actually put that explosion to use and built something useful…like a multistory ice palace clinging to the face of the tallest mountain in her kingdom.

"Hello, Marshmallow," Elsa smiled warmly and put out her hands. The golem shuffled forward, his previous stoicism and grumpish attitude transforming into the uncertain shuffle of a child approaching a parent. "I'm sorry I haven't come up to see you in a while. I really am."

Marshmallow shifted from foot to foot and eventually extended two icy fingers and touched Elsa's open palms. She felt his consciousness brush against hers, the simplistic urge to protect his creator temporarily pushed aside in lieu of something that could have been akin to love. Whatever it was, it put a ball of warmth in the queen chest. Moonlight winked off of something atop the golem's head, and she smiled all the bigger.

"My tiara looks good on you. I'm glad you found it." Marshmallow made a noise somewhere between happy purr and rumbling avalanche that made Elsa's ribs vibrate. He sank down to his knees and elbows and lowered his head until he was level with the queen. "You make a very good ruler of North Mountain. The best the kingdom's seen in centuries."

Marshmallow grinned and wiggled his fingers under Elsa's palms. "Makes me like mother-creator."

"Yes it does," the queen nodded and placed a hand on his lower jaw. "Will you do me a favor? Will you stand here and keep watch? I have someone I need to speak with inside."

Without a word, the golem rose to his feet and stood tall, resuming the pose of a sentinel once again. Task given, Elsa knew he'd remain there until she returned with Revel. It wasn't that she feared him eavesdropping, she just wanted her privacy.

"Elsa!" The queen turned just in time to catch Olaf as he rushed into her hip and wrapped his stick arms around her. "I knew you'd come!"

"Hello Olaf. Fancy seeing you up here," she said scratching him on the head and giving him a mock ponderous look. "I thought you'd be down in the stables with Sven. Imagine my surprise when I discovered you'd run off to the mountains with a certain important someone."

Olaf giggled and bounced from foot-to-foot. "It's awesome fun playing hide and seek in the mountains! Marshmallow was supposed to help too but he's been watching Revel. You know, he's really a funny guy. I can see why you love him so much."

"Olaf," Elsa blinked in surprise, not expecting to hear that declaration come from him. "I really don't know—"

"And now you two can be together!" he continued as if not hearing her. "Oh, this is perfect. I told him you'd see each other again, and I was right; cause you know, I'm pretty much a love expert. Now you can have all the warm hugs you want, but remember not to make them too warm because babies happen when hugs are too warm."

At that revelation, Elsa felt her jaw drop. "Where on earth did you hear that?"

"Anna told me when I asked how she and Kristoff were having a baby," the little snowman replied with a wide smile.

"Ah…I…I see," was all she could come up with, a deep flush working up her neck and into her cheeks.

"Anyway, Sven and I are going to go visit the trolls. Bulda said she'd show us where the fire stones are hidden. See you later! Come on Sven!" With that the little snowman waddled over to a waiting Sven who bugled at Elsa happily before turning and trotting down the path. "Tell Revel bye for me when you see him!" he shouted and waved.

The queen watched him go, slowly rising out of the stupor Olaf's comment about how babies were made had thrown her into. Leave it to Anna to give him a highly exaggerated explanation. Elsa sincerely hoped he didn't take to running around Arendelle warning people about their hugging. Exhaling a deep sigh, she turned with a measurable level of reluctance towards her castle and the man waiting for her there. The massive double doors opened and closed smoothly behind her, sealing her off from the mountain and the world beyond like a stone rolling in front of a tomb.

For a brief handful of moments, Elsa allowed herself to stand in the center of her great hall, close her eyes, and just breathe. She could smell crisp, clean air, frozen water, and the faintest scent of magic. This was her sanctuary; this was her true home. Yes, Arendelle was her kingdom, which she loved dearly, but here in her ice castle, in the isolations of the mountains, she was truly at peace. Nothing could touch her here. In essence, though a part of her hated admitting it, she was the goddess of her domain, the first and the last, Alpha and Omega. This was the crowning achievement of her power and the only thing she could truly be proud of. Not many people could boast having built an ice palace at the summit of a mountain. Breathing in the cathedral-like serenity, Elsa opened herself to the magic swirling around her like an invisible vortex. Breath after breath, eyes still gently closed, she allowed her power to rise to the surface and cling to her skin like an aura, crackles and sparks of blue wonder leaping from her fingers and roll down the center of her back. Her final exhale was slow and deliberate, the weight of her worry and fear sliding off her shoulders and sinking through the floor. The effect was immediate and blissful as she was buoyed out of the boiling cauldron of mixed emotions. It honestly felt as if at any second her feet would leave the ground and she could fly.

"I'm home," Elsa whispered with a toothy smile, heat building within her chest.

The peaceful, worry-free moment ended when she looked up through the layers of glowing ice, the colors shifting between blue and pink in response to her mood, and spotted a dark shadow on the fourth floor. It moved back and forth as if pacing, shifting from one end of the room to the other. Mouth pressed into a thin line, Elsa gathered her courage and started for the stairs.

Footfalls eerily silent, she climbed past the decorative second floor where her throne room and guest chambers resided. It had been after battle with Hans and the Weselton brothers, the queen had returned to fix the damage and decided to actually add rooms and décor to her icy home, furnishing it as she saw fit. She'd moved from open area to open area, envisioning what each new room would look like and sculpting everything from the ground up. The throne room had been the last thing she touched, preferring to keep it simple because, really, there was no need for a throne while atop the mountain. She wasn't a queen here, just a woman with a swirling, snowy tempest trapped inside her. But still, some habits were hard to break, and when you're raised your entire life to be queen there are remaining stereotypes, and a throne room is just one of them.

The third and fourth floor where for her own private use and the section of the castle she'd spent the most time working on. The sizable ballroom which opened into a stunning balcony a hundred or so feet off the ground took up most of the third floor. Her bedroom, study, and observatory took up the final triangular peak of her castle. As far as she knew, Anna and Kristoff used the guest bedrooms she'd built for whenever they got a wild hair and wanted to spend some quiet time in the ice castle, but Elsa suspected her sister and brother-in-law preferred the royal suite as it had a better view of the mountain range vista and sunrise. That's where she headed via a beautiful spiral staircase just off the third floor ballroom enclosed within a cylinder of ice accented with snowflakes that swirled and danced within the ice like trapped butterflies. The stairs were wide enough three people could walk shoulder to shoulder comfortably, and she scaled them two at a time, pulse rising the closer she got to her bedroom.

The stairs opened into a small antechamber just outside the hallway in front of her room, and Elsa paused there to catch her breath and compile her thoughts. She still didn't know what the hell she was going to say to Revel. Should she be angry? Should she be happy? Should she throw caution and formality to the wind? Truthfully, she didn't know, and her indecision rankled her.

_You're a queen damn it, start acting like one,_ she admonished, smoothing out her sparring outfit and adjusting herself accordingly. Satisfied she looked as regal as she could, Elsa squared her shoulders and walked into her room, chin held high._ He's a fugitive. He ran from you, he broke the laws of your kingdom, he—_

Her careful train of thought ground to an abrupt halt when she saw him standing with his back to her, the first few rays of a spectacular pink dawn just starting to warm her room with color. He was wearing a dark blue tunic, black pants and boots, and his hair was a tousled mess that bounced ever so slightly as he moved around the room admiring the queen's furnishings. Apparently, Anna had provided him with a pair of clothes after his escape, and Elsa couldn't help but notice how the fabric hugged his wide shoulders and chest. Dragging her eyes away from his body and the unexpected flare of heat that bloomed in her stomach, she stepped into the room, aware that he was muttering to himself as he stared at the fur lined, four poster bed.

"I can't believe she made all of this," he whispered, running a hand down one of the ornate posts.

"It took a lot of tries to get it right," Elsa said quietly, suppressing a smile at his complement. Revel jumped and whirled, the traction spikes along the bottom of his boots thinly scratching the ice, his eyes wide. Clearly she'd startled him, which had been her hope.

_Catch him off guard and keep him on his toes._

"Elsa," he exhaled, hand over his thundering heart. "I...you…um…hi," he offered with a lopsided, uncertain smile.

"Hello," she echoed back with a nod and felt like the biggest fool in the kingdom. Where had her royal demeanor gone? Where had the fire she'd grappled with during her ride up here gone? Suddenly she was speechless in front of the man who had run from her and her kingdom, and who had probably doomed Arendelle to war if she didn't return him to his cell.

_I can't be his lover and his queen. One or the other, I have to choose, and this can't be about me._

Latching firmly onto her choice, Elsa felt steel strengthen her spine and resolution darken her features. She was a queen first and foremost. "I think you know why I'm here," she said evenly, fixing him with a piercing stare.

Revel felt whatever hope he'd cradled wither under the gravity of her stare. He'd seen the transformation; he knew he was speaking to the queen and not _his_ Elsa. "I do," he replied quietly, body going still.

"I can't fathom how you thought this was a good idea," she began slowly, building towards the heart of the matter, "how running would make everything right."

"It was a foolish thing to do, but I had every intention of returning," he tried to reason and knew that he sounded like a coward flinching at a blow.

"Did you?" Elsa laughed mirthlessly, advancing towards him. "Really? Somehow, during your ride up here, you grew a spine and realized that what you'd done was perhaps the worst course of action to take? Forgive me for doubting you, but I think not."

"It's the truth," Revel countered, feeling a flush of warmth rise into his cheeks. Judging from the crackle and pop of the ice around him and the hard set of her jaw, he'd said the wrong thing.

"Since when have you ever told the truth?" Elsa glowered, balling her fists at her side. Yes, here was the anger, white-hot and dangerous. She reached for it, and it was like holding the tail of a thrashing dragon. "You do not get to speak about truths because everything about you is a lie. You lied to me from the beginning, you lied about who you were, you lied to me after your arrest, you lied about your father's murder, and you're lying to me now in my own home. You've manipulated everything so perfectly up until now, but the game has come to an end."

"I'm so happy you can read my mind," Revel growled, tensing. "Tell me, when did your ice grant you that power?"

"Do not mock me, Revel. Ever," Elsa warned, eyes flashing like hard chips of ice.

"Then I would suggest not accusing me of being a liar for my own sake!" he shouted and took a few steps towards her, closing the distance and stoking the fires of both their angers. "You don't know what I've been through! You don't know the horrors I've seen and the things I've lost because of the secrets I've had to carry."

"I would have if you'd just let me in! Did you think I was too weak to handle the truth? Do you think so little of me?"

"No, never, I just—"

"Well the truths out now, Revel, and I know who you are. Your brother's disinheritance letter explained everything, and all this time the only thing you had to do was just let me help you and none of this would have happened. But no, you're so used to running from your problems you figured it best if you ran from your most recent disaster and left me holding the pieces!"

"I never wanted to lie to you! I never wanted any of this to happen, but I couldn't help it. I tried warning you, I tried to keep you from prying into my past, but you just wouldn't let it go."

"How is your arrest at the Summit somehow my fault for being curious about your past? I never did any digging on you! I never had a reason to be suspicious about the man I—" she almost said loved but stopped herself, "the man who was closest to me. You set everything in motion all on your own, so don't push the blame onto me. Had you told me the truth in the beginning, I could have protected you."

"There is no protection from Adrek," Revel muttered bitterly.

"There is if you'd just let me do my job and _trusted_ me!" There it was; the throne at the bottom of the festering wound. Elsa felt a hitch in her chest saying it out loud. Under it all, under the layers of regal propriety and obligation, under her explanations and misgivings and feelings of betrayal, the root of the hurt the queen felt towards her lover was his inability to trust her. She'd given her everything to Revel, heart and soul, and he, in return, had kept secrets. Before she could stop them, tears welled in her eyes and a painful ball swelled in the back of her throat.

"I..I wish y-you had just—" but that was as far as she got before her throat closed. Hot tears rolled from her eyes and down her cheeks, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep the building sob trapped inside.

_Look at you,_ she scoffed at herself, _crying like a damsel when her white knight turned out to be something less. How utterly Arthurian._

She didn't know long she stood in the center of her room, arm around her waist and hand over her mouth, but at some point Elsa realized there were arms wrapped around her shoulders and she was being squeezed with a desperate tightness. His scent filled her nose and she turned into his chest, burying her face in his shirt. He was murmuring something over and over again like a prayer, and it took a moment for her to realize what he was saying.

"I love you. God, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything, and I love you."

Those three small, seemingly insignificant words held more power than Elsa expected they could. They worked like magic she'd never seen or experienced before. Each time he said the words it was like an incantation summoning the brightest, whitest light that engulfed them both in arms radiating a new kind of warmth. Revel strung them together like a master weaver, one atop the other, the spell growing in strength and buoying them out of the cloying darkness of anger and stinging betrayal. For the first time in a long time, Elsa felt a true note of peace hum through her like a chord being plucked, and the purest kind of music filled her. She overflowed with it and realized that it manifested in a bubbling laugh that started out small but inevitably flowed from her like a mountain spring. Slowly, she unclenched herself, snaking her arms around Revel's waist and clinging to him. The sob she'd been trying to keep trapped inside suddenly split in half and slipped past her lips as a half sob half laugh. It felt good to release the pressure, the bubble in her chest finally popping, and she sagged against the man she loved, the man she couldn't ever truly be without.

Revel leaned back and gently lifted her face into the pink light of sunrise warming the chamber. Elsa had never looked so beautiful, tears and all. Her smile broke off into another half sob half laugh that lasted only a second before his lips connected with hers, capping the stream of emotion and drawing both their bodies together like powerful magnets. He reveled in the sensation of her, in the lukewarm temperature of her cheeks under his palms, the soft brush of her hair between his fingers, the salty taste of tears on her lips, the splay of her cool fingers against his chest. Never in his wildest dream had be imagined falling in love with someone like her, but she was his and he was hers, and for the moment it seemed like the universe wasn't against them.

"I really am sorry," Revel whispered, his forehead pressed against hers, hands gently cupping her face.

"Me too," Elsa replied, resting her hands atop his. Just for this moment she wanted to close her eyes and feel him because she didn't know when she'd get the chance to be this close to her beloved again. Going back to Arendelle, they'd be facing a tidal wave of laws and demands. Elsa would be forced to stand as queen and pass judgment on the man she loved, but whatever the storm, whatever came her way, she'd fight for him until her last breath.

The universe, however, seemed to have different plans. The queen felt Marshmallow's consciousness brush against her and jerked back with a gasp, startling Revel.

"Elsa, what's wrong," he frowned.

She was seeing in double vision again and watched through her golem's eyes as two riders crested the rise. It wasn't necessary to see the sigil on their saddles, she knew who they were and felt her stomach drop through the floor.

_No, I thought I had more time._

_Mother-creator, two men approach. Do I engage?_ Marshmallow's baritone voice rumbled in her head.

"No, let them pass," Elsa replied, which only deepened Revel's concerned frown.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's Marshmallow. He…he was telling me two men are approaching on horseback."

The fear in the former captain's eyes mirrored the feeling of trepidation clawing its way through Elsa's veins. He quickly threw open the balcony doors and stepped out into the soft pink dawn that now had a tinge of red to it. Wind assaulted him from seemingly every direction, but he was able to see two small black shapes hesitantly move past Marshmallow and dismount a little ways away from the ice bridge. Adrek and Fritz stood for a moment, clearly in awe of the structure, but their gawk only lasted seconds. Adrek was the first to cross the chasm and pound heavily on the castle's door. Whirling around, Revel shut the balcony doors and leaned heavily against them, heart in his throat.

"Did you know they were following you?" he choked, unable to keep the shake from his voice.

"No, I didn't see anyone when I rode out," Elsa answered, her own voice colored with unease, pulse flying under her skin. She should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

"I have to go to them," he said in a rush, raking his hands through his hair. "I have to face him. This…this can't go on anymore."

Elsa caught his hands and held them against his chest. "You can't go to them. Adrek will kill you on sight and claim self-defense, and I can't let that happen. Please, he doesn't know you're here. Let me go down and talk to him. I can make them leave."

"No!" Revel gasped and squeezed her hands tightly. "I can't let you do that. They're dangerous, Fritz most of all. There's still so much you don't know about him. He killed my father in cold blood. Slit his throat and stabbed him six times. And that wasn't even his first murder! No, I'm not letting you near either of them."

The information was shocking but not surprising. Elsa had suspected Fritz was involved in King Gregor's murder, but Revel had confirmed it. What the former captain had seen that dark day only he could know, but she knew he wasn't exaggerating the details which didn't make the situation any better.

"But they're in my home," she pressed, looking up at him. "This is my domain, and you've taught me well. They're not going to attack me. Not here."

"I'm not letting you near them!" Suddenly, Revel's arms pulled her tightly to him in a crushing embrace. The queen could feel him trembling and squeezed back, wishing they'd had more time, that the universe wasn't such a cruel master. The dawning of this beautiful day, once drenched in love, was now soured and shadowed by fear and past sins, and it put such a sadness in her she felt the sting of fresh tears again. "I can't lose you like I lost my father…I can't watch them hurt you because that's what's going to happen. They'll hurt you to get to me."

Elsa clung to him, forcing herself to remember his musky scent and the feel of his skin against hers. It made her feel strong and gave her the boost of courage she needed. "It's okay, Revel; it's okay, I understand," she soothed, fingers stroking the length of his spine. She was happy he was preoccupied with their embrace, but it killed her all the same. When he felt the cold seal around his feet and jerked up in surprise, it was already too late. The queen moved back, hands raised apologetically, pain shinning in her cerulean eyes.

"Elsa what—what are you doing?" Revel looked down and saw ice starting to ascend his legs and began struggling in earnest. This wasn't will ice, she wasn't trapping him here, just slowing him down. Each time he broke free more would swallow his feet and lock him to the floor. "Elsa, no!"

"I'm sorry," she choked and backed away towards the chamber doors. "I'm so sorry. I can't let them know you're here. I can't let them take you away from me."

"No no no no you can't do this!" he shouted, reaching for her in desperation as he struggled to keep his balance. "Elsa you can't go to them, they'll kill you to get to me!"

"They won't do anything if they don't know you're here," she pressed still backing away.

"You know that's not true!"

The queen could feel her resolve breaking alongside her heart and whirled away. It killed her to do this, but they couldn't know she harbored a fugitive. If she could get Adrek to leave maybe she'd have a chance at…something. A plan hadn't yet formed. For the moment, the queen of Arendelle was moving solely on instinct, and she prayed to whatever would listen that she was right in her decision. Elsa calmed the ice around Revel's feet and pulled it back into herself as she stepped over the threshold. Revel, wasting no time, rushed for her but the doors slammed shut in his face, the seam between both massive pieces of ice dissolving, making it one impenetrable, three foot thick wall.

"Elsa!" he screamed in a terrified panic, pounding at the ice with both fists. "Please, don't do this! He'll kill you! Fritz will kill you! You don't know what he's capable of. Elsa, please!" He could see her watery reflection through the ice, her forehead resting against it. It wasn't clear enough to see whether or not she was crying, but the gentle shake of her shoulders told him she was. His own tears rolled free from his eyes as he mirrored her stance, forehead resting above hers, hand shadowing where hers rested on the other side. "_Please_," he sobbed, not caring if his tears fell or not, "please don't do this. I can't lose you too. I love you, god _I love you_! Please, don't go to them."

"When you say you love me," she whispered, and he could hear her despite it being muffled, "do you know how much I love you? I love you, Revel so…so much."

Revel rocked back with the shock of her words and felt his world start to collapse. During all their quiet moments and stolen seconds, Elsa had never said those three small words. Like the former captain, it shone in her eyes whenever she was close to him, but she'd refrained from speaking them aloud for fear of tying herself to something she could never have. She'd wanted to say it, the words burning her tongue like a live ember, but Elsa had swallowed them back down, saving them for a later time. Well, that time was now, and hearing them spoken with so much emotion, with so much pure honesty, nearly brought Revel to his knees and drove the air from his lungs. It also didn't help that the way she'd said it almost seemed like it was a goodbye.

And in effect it was. Elsa quickly turned away from the door and headed towards the stairs, Revel's screams and pounding echoing behind her. He was smashing himself against the wall, screaming for her to wait, to think about what she was doing, to stop, but she did none of it and headed to the first floor to usher in her uninvited guests. The queen of Arendelle wasn't a stupid woman, she knew what Adrek and Fritz were after. She just hoped that with the knowledge she had about the disinheritance letter and Gregor's murder it would be enough to make the king of Asham think twice about threatening her in her own home.

_This is my turf now, Adrek. Let's see how good your footing on ice really is now that you're skating on such a thin layer._

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><p><strong><em>AN:_**And now we're starting the free fall! Whew! As a small side note, chapter 20 will be fairly large and involved, so it may not be published till the end of the month. I will strive to pull to together as fast as possible, but there's a lot of detail and dialog that needs some strategic care, so bear with me! I will continue posting Dusting on my tumblr page, and as always REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! I'd love to see this fic break 500 reviews. Hell, I'd love to see it break 1,000 but I think that's hoping to much. Let me know what you think and feel free to bother me on tumblr. Love chatting with you all!


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:** So here we are. We've reached the point where the roller coaster dives into free fall and we're all hanging on for dear life. This chapter to a lot to write and really left me in a dark place. It's been a while since I've done anything on this scale. Please note that strong language and gore follows in this chapter along with one final plot point revealed. Good luck my lovelies, and as always, please review!

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><p>"What do you think we're going to find when we enter?" Fritz asked, glancing at Adrek out of the corner of his eye. The king furrowed his brow and craned his neck as he gazed up at the impossibly tall spires of Elsa's ice palace. Fritz seemed less impressed, his nonchalance almost forced, but that was normal. Rarely did the champion find anything impressive, or if he did he'd never admit it aloud. Adrek, on the other hand, had been left speechless since glimpsing the palace as they crested the first rise. He'd heard rumors of the queen of Arendelle's powers and what she'd created in the mountains surrounding her kingdom, but imagination alone couldn't prepare him for the dazzling beauty of it. It was truly a remarkable feet of engineering and architectural knowledge which far exceeded the grandeur of some of the most famous structures. Notre Dame, Saint Peter's Basilica, the Dome of the Rock…they were all extraordinary buildings, and all of them paled in comparison to the massive castle crafted entirely out of ice and clinging to the side of a mountain. If its placement wasn't amazing enough, the sheer size of it was.<p>

"I imagine we'll find the queen," he answered, still staring and marveling, a smile touching his lips as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. Whenever sunlight touched the ice the castle would shift colors like a diamond, blues and pinks rippling across the glass smooth surface like trapped fire.

"And Revel? If he's hiding here and she's protecting him, what will we do then? What will _you_ do?"

Adrek pulled his gaze away from the castle and leveled it on Fritz. A spark leapt between them, an entire conversation spanning mere seconds touching each man, and when it ended there was no happiness in the king of Asham's eyes or in the hard set of his mouth. "We'll find him and we'll drag him back to Asham."

"He'll put up a fight," Fritz commented as they carefully made their way across the arching ice bridge spanning the yawning chasm beneath them. A rumble from the plateau behind them caused the champion to turn and stare at the snow golem who was tracking them as they neared the palace. He didn't know whether to be intimidated or be in awe of the creature. It boggled his mind that the queen of Arendelle would have the power to create life that didn't involve being stuck with a cock. Marshmallow glowered at the men, fangs of ice starting push through his snowy body as he became more agitated. Fritz bared his own set of fangs, snarling at the creature and was amused when it snarled back.

"I believe that's where you come in," Adrek commented over his shoulder, hands gripping the slick bannister. "You always were quite persuasive with your hands when the situation called for it."

Fritz grinned and followed his king up to the massive double doors. Adrek pounded his fist against the ice three times and was shocked when the slabs opened almost upon their own accord and ushered the men in. Hand held out to forestall his king, Fritz stepped over the threshold first, senses open and searching for a trap. The doors boomed shut behind them, causing the two to jump and spin, but nothing more happened, the ornate great hall falling into reverent silence.

"How many floors do you think this place has?" Fritz asked, his voice echoing through the hall as he turned slowly, staring up through the nearly translucent floors.

"My guess is probably three," Adrek said, turning alongside Fritz. "I have to admit, this is a stunning palace."

"If you say so."

"You never were one for art," Adrek commented with a sideways smile.

"Just don't see the point in it. But remember, I'm an uncultured swine according to your courtly hangers-on."

Adrek chuckled and stepped further into the great hall, eyes tracking the stairs and where they lead. "There are rooms right off that double set of stairs and one above. If they're here, my guess would be they'd want to be at the top so they can see if anyone comes through the mountain pass." Looking down, he searched the floor for footprints and wasn't surprised not to find any. The snow that would have been tracked had either melted or been swept away.

"Always the able tracker," Fritz observed with a smile.

"One of the only things my father gave me…the chance to learn to hunt," Adrek responded dryly. The smile slipped from the champion's face and was replaced with a softness rarely seen by anyone aside from Adrek. He didn't have to say anything, didn't even have to move. Just the look Fritz gave his king was enough to tell him that it was almost over, that the marathon that had overtaken their lives was nearly complete.

"After you," Adrek said quietly, motioning for Fritz to precede him up the stairs. They managed to make it up the second flight and had just entered the third floor ballroom when both men pulled up short at the sight of the queen standing in the center of the room wreathed in the glow of a spectacular red dawn. She didn't look at all surprised to see them, her features tight in the customary regal posturing, eyes bright, almost glowing, and tracking them like a hawk.

"Gentlemen, what brings you to my mountain?" It wasn't a friendly question or greeting, more of a demand, and the gravity of it hung thick in the air.

"Majesty," Adrek said with a slight incline of his head, eyes locked on the queen. He didn't waste time with formality. "I don't believe I need to inform you what we've come here for."

"You don't seem to have a problem with overstepping boundaries, King Adrek," Elsa said coolly. "This could be perceived as a matter of trespassing. My ice palace is my second home, and you are not welcome here."

"Harboring a fugitive wanted for high treason is an act of war, Queen Elsa, or have you forgotten our conversations? I know you are hiding Revel here, and I also know that you and he are lovers."

_Well that was direct and to the point,_ Elsa thought. Luckily, she was an expert at hiding her inner most thought, essentially an expert liar, so Adrek's revelation about knowing her and Revel were together was carefully smothered behind her regal mask. It didn't stop her from feeling shock, but it kept the Adrek in the dark about how accurate he was. Her balancing act hinged on maintaining and keeping an upper hand and not allowing Adrek to see any chinks in her armor.

"Be careful where you tread, Adrek," Elsa warned, frost accumulating in her palm and crusting her fingernails. "Wars can be started over insults such as the one you just gave. I do not need to explain my personal matters with you or anyone, and I will not stand here and be weighed and measured by a king who has no jurisdiction in my kingdom."

"If you have nothing to hide," Adrek frowned, his temper rising just as fast as Elsa's was cooling, "then allow us to search your palace. If we don't find Revel we'll leave and search elsewhere."

"You will leave my kingdom and never return, sir. That is what you'll do."

"I have a right to know where my brother is!"

"You have no rights in Arendelle!" Elsa shouted and ice swirled around her, tiny peaks rising off the floor. "I have put up with your accusations and insults, I have done everything in my power to make this unfortunate situation better, but I cannot produce the man you are searching for because I do not know where he is. Revel escaped my prison with help from a guard who is being detained as we speak, but where he might be is only known to him. I'm as much in the dark as you are."

Yes, she was a very, very capable liar. Not even a pulse flutter as she wove her lie.

"Then why did you leave your castle and ride up here?" Adrek countered, stepping further into the room.

"I often make trips up here to clear my head and get away from the rigors of ruling for a few hours."

"Leaving your sister in charge," Adrek surmised gruffly and slid a look that wasn't lost on the queen over to Fritz.

"Who I leave in charge of my kingdom is not your concern."

Resolve tightening his muscles, Adrek exhaled slowly, preparing himself for the final moments of his fifteen year chase. "I know you are lying to me, Queen Elsa. I know you are protecting Revel for misguided reasons. Perhaps labeling you two as lovers was too rash a decision, but you are at least friends with him, but I assure you that whatever lie he's fed you, whatever excuse he's given about his past crimes, he is a dangerous man who needs to be brought to justice. Whether he finds that justice here or in Asham is entirely up to you. I know he's here, and if you turn me away, if you force me to return to Asham without him, I will return to Arendelle with my army and tear down your kingdom looking for him. Fifteen years is long enough to run."

"You would kill innocent people and destroy my kingdom looking for one man that may already be miles away from here by now? Is that what you're telling me?"

"Enough with the bullshit, we know he's here," Fritz growled. Elsa flicked her eyes over at him and the champion felt a chill overtake over the room that had nothing to do with it being made entirely out of ice.

"Do you now, Master Fritz? And who saw him come here under cover of darkness? You? I wasn't aware you had the ability to see in the dark. Clearly I underestimated your skills."

"We saw a rider leave the castle and head into the mountains shortly before the alarm bells began to sound. That is not coincidence."

"What you saw was Baron Kristoff riding his reindeer Sven. He may be married to my sister, but Kristoff still oversees the ice harvest that continues year round in Arendelle," Elsa supplied, perfect eyebrow cocked.

"Convenient he would leave at such a time of turmoil."

"As I stated before, I do not need to explain the happenings in my kingdom to you. My guards and I suspect Revel escaped on foot and headed into the western mountains. We have tracking hounds out as we speak, but that's as much as we can do. Unless either of you has the power to magically summon him, which if you do, I would suggest using it now."

Adrek's face was steadily coloring, the burn in his cheeks almost hot enough to feel. "I do not appreciate being spoken to like an invalid, Majesty."

"And I do not like being followed to my ice palace, cornered and questioned, by visiting royals who continuously overstep their boundaries! It would seem you and I are both in situations of discomfort, but you can change that by leaving and returning to your ship."

"I will not leave until I have Revel in my custody," Adrek rumbled.

"I can make you leave, Adrek, if that is what you wish," Elsa warned and lifted her hand to show him her gauntlet of will-ice.

Silence overtook the chamber as Elsa and Adrek stared at one another, challenging fire sparking between them. She knew Adrek would not back down, but she also knew there was no way he'd find Revel in her palace. On her way down, Elsa had sealed the fourth floor off. If he found the stairs it would appear they ascend to nowhere or into a piece of her castle she hadn't yet crafted, but the king of Asham would not get the chance to start looking. Not while she stood between him and Revel.

"I will not be threatened, Queen Elsa. My champion and I will be making a sweep of this marvelous castle of yours, and you will not molest us in any way. My personal guards' know of my visit here. If I do not return by evening they will set sail and return with my fleet. Arendelle will be plunged into a war it cannot hope to win because a stubborn queen would not listen to reason. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Adrek turned to leave, touching Fritz on the shoulder and pointing off in a vague direction for him to start searching, when Elsa pulled him up short and stopped him dead in his tracks. Now was the time to play her hand.

"You won't be waging war with me, Adrek. I know about the disinheritance letter. I know about you and Fritz."

Suddenly, the silence that befell the chamber was of a dangerous flavor, the kind that precedes a storm. It hung like a living thing above them all, each breath in and out filling the room with a noxious miasma of trepidation and anger. Both men stood frozen, Adrek with his back to the queen and Fritz fully facing her, body so tight he looked like a cord about to snap, white knuckles at his side. When Adrek spoke again his voice was a strained whisper.

"And what do you think you know?"

"You two are lovers," Elsa said simply, the news no longer holding the shock it had when she first read the letter. "Your father found you two in your study participating in…a form of carnal desire and disinherited you, so you had him killed in order to keep your secret hidden. But it wasn't that easy, was it? Gregor had written up the disinheritance, a hard copy that couldn't be refuted once presented to the council. Somehow, while on his way there, he was murdered. By either you or Fritz, I suspect. Tell me," she asked, stepping closer to them, ice echoing her footfalls as a reminder of who they were in the presence of, "have I hit the mark?"

"Yes," Adrek hissed after another stretch of fragile silence, "we are—"

"What are you doing?" Fritz demanded, rounding on the man ousted as his lover, pure shock on his face.

"She knows, Fritz!" Adrek shouted, his back still turned. "Denying it won't change the facts that someone else knows. She's read the letter."

"She could be lying, and you're playing right into it!"

"You know father was explicit in his description of what he'd caught us doing in my study," Adrek whispered. "She knows."

"Where was he hiding it?" the champion demanded in a snarl, turning back to the queen.

"In his hearth," Elsa shrugged. "I'm not surprised you weren't able to find it when you ransacked his room after his arrest."

"Revel always had a flair for drama," Adrek chuckled mirthlessly. "He used to hide things all over the castle when he was younger."

"Before you pinned your father's murder on him and forced him to run, you mean. Tell me, what was it like stabbing the man who raised you to death six times before slitting his throat?" Elsa asked with a slight tilt of her head.

The king of Asham spun towards her, the spikes on his boots that gave him traction on the floor scraping the mirror-like surface. He was pale, and it had nothing to do with his anger. His eyes slid over to Fritz and suddenly Elsa knew who'd actually been the one responsible for the murder. "Do no stand there and act like you know about anything that happened that night! You weren't there! I loved my father. He was everything to me and more. I looked up to him and practically worshiped the ground he walked on, but even at a young age I knew I was different. It was nothing I could share with him, oh no, Gregor wanted tough sons more in touch with their place in the line of succession than their feelings, so I bottled up these questions and urges. I concealed them from the world and pretended that everything was alright."

Elsa felt the floor beneath her shift and stifled a gasp. Never had she expected those words to come from Adrek's mouth. To be faced with a man so much like her but also so different was both terrifying and astounding.

_Is this what I could have turned into?_ she thought watching Adrek's face morph from emotion to emotion, clearly grappling with the weight of the secret tearing its way to the surface. _Is this the creature I could have become? _

Elsa knew all it would have taken for her to have become like Adrek was a push in the opposite direction, for her to fall into the darkness rather than the light. Would she have killed to keep her secret safe? The sickening truth was, yes. Had push come to shove and her fear was able to permeate every aspect of her being, the Arendelle queen could have committed murder in order to make certain no one knew about her powers. It was her sister's constant presence and unwavering love that tethered Elsa, precarious as it was, to the light and kept her from becoming a villain. But it wouldn't have taken much to sway her, not in the beginning. And not for the first time she silently thanked Anna for always being there.

_Oh Adrek,_ she thought watching him,_ your brother is so much like Anna. He would have accepted you when your father didn't. _

"I know what it feels like to hold a secret that has the power to destroy a kingdom," Elsa said quietly, looking off to the side in remembrance of her years in isolation and the pain it had caused her family and kingdom. "For thirteen years I hid from my kingdom because of my powers, hid from my family. I've been where you're standing right now; I've felt the fear. You know what I'm talking about. It claws at you in the night doesn't it? You can't sleep sometimes because you're awakened by that sick feeling that everyone around you knows and that you're different. It's like you wear that secret printed on your skin and you're terrified of people getting close because it means they could find out."

"You may think us similar," Adrek hissed, clearly unmoved by her words, "but we are the farthest thing from one another. Do not presume to play on my humanity. My father lied to me from birth. All those sweet promises of eternal parental love and acceptance meant nothing because the first thing he did upon discovering my secret was to disinherit me and strike me from the books as his son. What kind of man does that?"

"Surely it was just shock he was experiencing," Elsa tried to reason.

"It wasn't shock that drove him, it was maliciousness," Adrek said bitterly. "Do you know what that's like? Do you know how hard I fought to be the man my father wanted me to be? I did everything he asked and more! I never once complained or asked for anything in return. What right did I have, anyway? I was the first born with everything at my fingertips. But when he caught us together that night, he threatened to banish Fritz." Adrek looked over at his lover with raw pain in his eyes. "I pleaded with him to let me have this one thing. _This one thing,_ and do you know what he did, what he told me? He told me that if I wanted to suck someone's cock it should be his own because I'd forever be the palace bitch in his eyes. He told me that Asham wouldn't ever allow a _queen_ to sit on the throne, so he had no choice but to disinherit me and give my rightful title to Revel. To my slack-ass little brother who wanted to become a guard more than he wanted to be a prince!"

"So you planned his murder instead," Elsa observed flatly.

"What else was I supposed to do?!" he bellowed, unable to stop the stream of words vomiting from his mouth. "I'd just lost _everything_! All my years of tutoring, all the connections I'd made, all the possibilities at my fingertips, stripped away in one evening! I had so many plans for Asham, dreams my father couldn't even imagine, but they weren't good enough. I wasn't good enough, all because I fell in love with another man? Where's the fairness in that? It's not like I could control where my heart lead me!"

"You could have waited until your father died and returned. Revel would have given your title back to you," Elsa pressed.

It was Fritz who laughed cynically. "Revel would have fucked the kingdom over more than Gregor had. He didn't know the first thing about running a kingdom, and half the time didn't know what the hell he was doing anyway. All his time was spent learning to fight like a guard and ducking his tutors. Adrek was the one who knew the inner workings of the kingdom, who knew where it needed care and taxing and where it didn't, and he was the only one who deserved to sit on the throne."

"So which one of you is the murderer? Which one of you played god?"

The king of Asham's face twisted in anger. "You do not have the right—"

"I did," Fritz interrupted with a thin smile. "Adrek wasn't the only one poised to lose everything if disinherited. Gregor adopted me at a young age after I was banished from my own home. I had nowhere to go and nothing to my name. Adrek came to me after Gregor showed him the disinheritance letter. I knew he was going to the council, so I intercepted him. We fought, Gregor lost. End of story."

"It most certainly isn't the end," Elsa accused. "You then framed an innocent fifteen year old prince for a murder he didn't commit so your secret could remain hidden. A murder you still intend to pin on him and execute him for. Revel is innocent in all of this."

"He's hardly innocent," Adrek fumed.

"Really?" Elsa argued, anger cooling her blood. "For fifteen years he's lived apart from Asham and no damage to your kingdom or reputation has occurred. He could have come forward with that letter, it was sealed with your father's personal seal after all so its legitimacy couldn't be questioned, but he chose instead to run from you and stay hidden. For fifteen years he's stayed away and not meddled in your affairs, but you've continued to hunt him, baying for the blood on an innocent man in order to cover for your crime."

"He's a liability," Fritz spat.

"He's your scapegoat! But he's also a resident of my kingdom." Taking a breath, because angry words only bred more angry words, Elsa calmed herself and tried a different tactic. She didn't want to force Adrek's hand in his decision. He would resent her for life if she forced him to leave Arendelle through means of blackmail, but she would force him if he gave her no other alternative.

"I'm sorry for the pain your father put you through, but that's no excuse to murder an innocent man, to murder your blood brother. He's your brother, Adrek, or have you forgotten? Has fear so completely blinded you to that fact? Revel is your kin. Surely that means something."

"I buried my brother years ago," Adrek whispered, and Elsa thought she saw tears in his eyes. "I never wanted to hurt him, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes, fate is unkind, even to brothers. I loved him, but sacrifices have to be made. My father was killing our kingdom. Asham has become a jewel because of my reign and will only grow after my death. That is my legacy, and I will kill to protect it."

"And what of Symon? Will you kill him too because he could later become a _liability_?"

"Symon will inherit Asham. I know I will never have children," Adrek chuckled dryly, a small smile playing on his lips, "it's impossible, but Symon will take control once I'm gone."

"But none of this has to play out like you have it in your head," Elsa pushed with a fiery conviction. "You don't have to do this anymore, Adrek. You can let the past go and live for the future. I don't care what you are or who you choose to love. It's not my place to judge, and I swear on my life that your secret is safe with me. You can just walk out of here and no one would be the wiser. Let me take care of Revel. You and Fritz go back to Asham, and this whole matter can be put behind us."

For a moment, the king of Asham stood statuesque in the hall of ice, his head bowed with thought. Though she didn't dare move, Elsa mentally reached for him, trying to will Adrek to realize she wasn't a threat to his way of life, that her knowing changed nothing. Revel would never reveal his brother's secret, and neither would she.

_Let him live how he wants. I'm not God. I have no room to judge._

After an impossibly long stretch of silence, Adrek looked up at her. "You would swear on your life?" he asked as if the notion was a curiosity to him.

"Yes," Elsa breathed, not daring to hope but feeling the emotion swelling in her chest. But then Adrek smiled thinly and all she saw was sympathetic pity.

"The price of your life means nothing to me, Queen Elsa. You are a liability now, nothing more."

Elsa felt the world tilt and clenched her jaw until her teeth ached. "So you and I have reached an impasse."

"It would appear so," he confirmed, folding his arms across his chest.

"I will not let Revel leave with you," Elsa scowled.

"Then congratulations, you have doomed Arendelle to war."

"Let us not forget who holds the cards here," the queen warned, ice crackling around her. She didn't want to do this, didn't want to play this hand, but he'd given her no choice. "According to your father's letter, you are an impostor to the Asham throne, and therefore hold no true monarchic power, but I'm willing to let you walk out of here as you are. I'm willing to give you Asham and your lover and your legacy. You can have it all. My only condition is that you leave Revel here with me. If you do not, if you continue to meddle in Arendelle's affairs, if you raise a finger to anyone in my kingdom, your council and every Prussian monarch will know of your disinheritance. This is not a threat, it's a promise, and I keep my promises."

The fire in Adrek's eyes was almost a tangible thing. Elsa watched his face brighten in anger. "You would blackmail me?" he seethed.

"Yes, I would," she hissed back.

Another moment suspended in silence stretched before them, monarch staring down monarch. Elsa believed she had the upper hand. She had the letter and the knowledge of Fritz and Adrek's relationship. It was enough to bring any sane ruler to his knees, but apparently the king of Asham wasn't as level headed as she'd thought. That or he greatly underestimated her power. Whatever the reason, it was Adrek who drew it to a close. Turning to Fritz, who was just as livid as his king, he growled, "Make it look like a lover's quarrel. Leave no loose ends." And then he was gone, descending the stairs to the lower second and first floor in search of Revel. That was the only blessing Elsa could salvage from the house of cards that had just crumbled before her. Adrek didn't know there was a fourth floor.

"You really should have just handed him over to us and skipped the blackmail part," Fritz chuckled as he stepped into the center of the room with the cocky swagger of a man who knew exactly what he was going to do and reveled in it.

"You would have killed him," Elsa heard herself remark matter-of-factly, her mind scrambling to catch up with current events and how they were unfolding. Had Adrek really just given his champion the command to assassinate her? The thought was laughable. They were sealed in an ice palace at the top of a mountain with a woman who had enough power to plunge her entire kingdom into an eternal winter. A woman who was, if Saja was to be believed, a descendent of the goddess of winter herself.

"Yes, we would have, but you would have been safe. Now…well," Fritz clicked his tongue disappointingly and shook his head. "Such a waste of a ruler."

"You have to be joking," Elsa frowned. "You're going toe to toe with me?"

"Well aren't you a cocky bitch."

"I buried Arendelle under nearly thirty feet of snow _and _built this entire palace in a three day span. I've stopped two assassination attempts already, so what the hell do you think you're going to be able to do to me, Fritz?"

"Way I heard it," the champion sniffed, "you hardly held off those Weselton brothers when they stormed this place three years ago."

"They got lucky and caught me off guard."

"And the man who put a dagger under your ribs? Was he lucky too?"

"I have since prepared myself, and the second man who attempted to take my life never got within a foot of me."

"Shitty training and planning on his part then," he countered with a wide smile.

Smoldering anger worked into Elsa's chest, and she glared at the Asham champion with a simmering kind of hatred felt towards someone who was being unnecessarily cruel. "You would do well not to underestimate me, Fritz. I am no one to be trifled with."

"Lady," he sighed, unsheathing twin cutlasses from the sheath across his back, "I'm not going to trifle with you. I'm going to do what my king and lover commanded and kill you. The choice in how you die is entirely up to you. You can go quickly with little pain or we can take this dance nice and slow."

Elsa saw how he handled his weapons, the sure, easy way he hefted them as if they were a natural part of his body, and knew Fritz was well trained in the art of combat. His stance was easy and loose. He held his swords point down, shoulders squared, one foot back ready to lunge into an attack as quickly as he could parry one. There had always been a lethality to him Elsa had noticed upon their first meeting at the Summit, but now, face-to-face with him in her ice castle, she realized how much of that deadly talent Fritz had kept under wraps. If only she knew this was the tip of the iceberg.

"So what'll it be?" he asked with a lopsided smile.

The queen usually prided herself on her inability to be goaded. It was a hallmark of a strong ruler and one aspect of her personality and will she greatly appreciated. But standing here face-to-face with the sheer audacity of Fritz's boastings, Elsa found herself being pushing into showing this cocky little ass exactly what she was capable of. She may not be as skilled as Fritz or Revel, may have only been physically training for a little over half a year, but the queen of Arendelle was never without protection, and the Asham champion was about to learn that lesson. She wouldn't kill him. Oh no, that could have been done with just a twitch of her fingers, but Elsa had no stomach for killing unlike Fritz did. No, she would humble him. Holding her left arm out in front of her, she made a fist, knuckles facing down, and pulled her magic into one cohesive object that grew, layer upon layer upon layer, until a bastard sword rested in her grip. It wasn't anything ornate, deadly in its simplicity, but it got her point across to Fritz. Well, mostly.

The champion stared at the weapon for a moment before breaking out into a hearty laugh that almost doubled him over. "Well, that's certainly different. An ice sword, why didn't I think of that! Clearly I am no match for your skills. Here, here," Fritz said lowering one cutlass and actually putting behind his back in a teasing manner. He raised the other and adopted an exaggerated fencer's stance, right cutlass raised ready to parry an "attack". "Please do me the honors of first—"

He would have blanched had he seen the attack happening. As it was, Fritz heard and felt it, one right after the other. Elsa had closed the distance remarkably fast, her feet finding traction where others only slid. Her sword, made all the harder because it was reinforced with her will, cleaved through Fritz's cutlass with a metallic ring as if it were made from nothing more than parchment. A fraction of a second later the edge of her ice blade caught him in the chest just above the collarbone, splitting the skin as easily as it had split his blade. Elsa returned to a ready stance after flicking a few wayward beads of blood from her blade, her face set in a focused mask.

"I…" Fritz stared down at his now useless blade in stunned disbelief before fiery pain bloomed in his chest. "Jesus," he swore and touched a hand to the weeping wound, fingers coming away bloody. His amazement showed in every line on his face and was oh so satisfying for the queen to watch.

_So you thought this was going to be easy, _Elsa smiled inwardly, confidence adding steel to her spine. Apparently, Fritz hadn't expected her to fight him or at the very least wound him. There was a flicker of something dark in his eyes as his brows came together in an expression of confusion and mild outrage. But then it was gone and the champion remarkably laughed.

"Well, I'll be damned, that was the single most astounding and idiotic thing you could have done."

"Please, enlighten me," Elsa said with an arched eyebrow as she watched him closely.

"I should have expected something special from your ice. That was my mistake. But yours? Yours was missing all the vital parts."

And suddenly there was the attack: fast and deadly and almost unseen. Fritz exploded into action, diving towards Elsa with a wide sweep of his only useful cutlass that would have driven the blade deep into her neck and chest like an axe through a melon. There wasn't any battle cry on his lips, no smug grin as he came at her, just a focused determination that made the queen go momentarily cold. This was a man who knew his game and knew how to kill. Unlike Hans, Fritz bypassed senseless banter and rushed her like a charging bull. He would have succeeded in his attack had Elsa not been ready and exploded into action right along with him.

Distance would be her best defense. She had no urge to kill Fritz, knowing if she took his life it would give Adrek a reason to bypass her blackmail and declare war while making her no better than the champion. She still clung to the hope that, if she subdued Fritz, Adrek would count his losses and leave her kingdom. That was her new plan, anyway. Elsa would humble the Asham champion by using her own abilities to trap him. Distantly, she wondered if she should call Marshmallow. The golem may have been slow, but two against one were better odds. It would take him a bit to reach the chamber, time Elsa wasn't sure she had, but at least he'd be here.

_No, this is my fight,_ she thought stubbornly.

So the queen of Arendelle clashed in combat with the champion of Asham, thunder preceding lightning, magic against steel. The sword she'd conjured had been for show, a physical demonstration that she wasn't a woman to be taken lightly and that she knew her way around a weapon. What happened next was the true reveal of her power. Fritz was half way to her when the first blunted stalagmite hit him in the ribs and flung him sideways like a pesky gnat. He tumbled and rolled across the frictionless floor but managed to spring to his feet in that remarkable way a seasoned fighter could, digging his spiked boots into the ice in order to stop himself. He was a good distance away now, right where Elsa wanted him.

Stamping her foot down and summoning her magic into her palms, the queen fired her first projectile with a crackling hiss of power. The missile whistled over Fritz's shoulder and thudded into the wall behind him. The second one nearly clipped his right shoulder. Stunned once again, the champion glanced behind him at the deadly projectiles imbedded in the mirror smooth wall, enabling Elsa to spring her trap. With just a small flick of her wrist, she called for her ice to encase his boots and lock him down. As always, it obeyed and the champion jerked in surprise when he heard and felt the cold start to creep over his feet. Fritz smashed one foot free and jerked the other away just in time, but the queen was anticipating that and pressed her advantage, firing off two more projectiles in order to keep him in a relatively confined corner of the hall.

"Clever girl," he called, his voice echoing in the chamber as he stumbled around, footing unsure as the ice under him became uneven and spiny.

"I have my moments," Elsa smiled thinly, readying herself for the final push which would pin Fritz to the wall much like she'd done with the Weselton brother.

"As do I," he said with a frown and did the single most insane thing Elsa had ever seen. He broke the ice sealing his feet one last time and charged as fast as he could towards her.

Startled by his remarkable speed, because this was still ice and Fritz shouldn't have that kind of footing, Elsa took a step back and attempted to lock onto him, but he was moving too fast for the translucent teeth to catch. He managed to get within two yards of the queen before she raised an ice shield and blocked his strike, parrying with one of her own. The projectile skipped across Fritz's shoulder, slicing through his leather vest and shirt and laying open his skin. She didn't wait for him to counter her attack, continuing in her attempt at locking his feet down and pinning him. But Fritz was impressively fast and pressed his assault, pushing Elsa into the center of the chamber and keeping her on her guard.

"Didn't Adrek tell you?" he grunted as she blocked a blow and slid backwards. Apparently, he'd seen her shock and loved it. "Arendelle isn't the only kingdom that teaches its guards and military men how to fight on ice."

It was getting more and more difficult to anticipate his moves, the Asham champion practically dancing past her and showing no sign of fatigue. And to make matters worse, he was strategically getting closer, cutlass blade flashing like lightning in the brightness of the hall. Elsa felt the tip of his blade brush her right shoulder and winced.

_Okay, a little too close for comfort._

"Ah, so the Snow Queen does bleed red after all," Fritz laughed, watching a small patch of crimson soak into Elsa's shirt sleeve.

"My blood's just as red as yours," Elsa said, fighting to remain concentrated.

"I'll make note of that when I paint the floor with it."

"Strong talk coming from the man I've made bleed twice already," she replied with a cocky smile like this was just a game and not a dance of life and death. Fritz seemed to sober at her remark and straightened, hazel eyes flashing. "I'm sorry that's such an aggravating turn of events. I thought trained dogs were supposed to be more vicious. My mistake."

His next lunge was faster than the last, anger giving the champion an added boost of energy, but it also made him a bit more sloppy. Elsa easily danced away like Revel had shown her with the sandbags, Fritz missing her by a good two feet.

"Come now," she goaded, trying to put him off his game by using his anger against him. "That last one should have connected. You can still change your mind and walk out of here."

"I'd shut the fuck up, if I were you," he growled, face starting to turn red.

"Queen's don't take orders from barking dogs," Elsa countered, canting her head. It was a dangerous game, but she reminded herself that this was her home and he was on her territory. Nothing could touch her so long as she kept focused and kept moving. Eventually her ice would catch up to him and then the dance would be over. But egging Fritz on was the worst tactic she could have used, and the queen slowly began to realize her mistake.

The champion came at her in a relentless barrage, blows either missing entirely or bounding off her shield. He was angry now, the once smooth, determined set of his face marred by lines of hot frustration. Clearly, he'd believed bringing down Arendelle's queen would have been an easy move, but he'd tangled with the Snow Queen. Her resilience and skill with her magic was proving a greater obstacle than previously thought, and that angered him. To be brought low by one person, by a _woman_, was galling and infuriating. So Fritz checked himself and steeled his assault, sharpening his attacks and focusing on planting his cutlass into some vital organ and twisting.

Elsa retreated from the attacks, her previous pride deflating like a punctured water skin. She didn't realize the sword had rematerialized into her hands until she caught a particularly savage swing that would have laid open her face. The impact was jarring and made the joints in her arm ache. Her blade cracked down the side with the force of the impact only to instantly mend as she forced her will into the weapon, strengthening it.

_ Sink lower,_ Elsa told herself frantically, parrying another set of stinging attacks, sore muscles moving to a strange, alien rhythm. _Sink into your magic. Trap him. Stop him._

So lower she dove, weaving her magic into every fiber of her being, every molecule, like she was slipping into armor. The ice in the room changing from blue to orange to yellow as the queen's eyes began to glow a familiar static white. The cutlass came for her again in an upward push that would have pierced her abdomen and slid into her lungs. Elsa tracked the deadly piece of steel with her eyes, but at the last second, Fritz changed trajectory. Stepping forward onto his right foot, he spun in a tight circle and brought his blade up and over in another cleaving arc. Elsa saw the blade descending towards her unprotected head, and time ground to a remarkable slowness. Her body tensed, frost spreading under her, as her muscles instinctively clicked into place. She raised her round shield, blocking the blow, steel ringing against ice as the cutlass bit deep. With a swift twist of her hips, Elsa pushed Fritz's sword arm away with an outward swing, opening the champion to an attack and splaying her fingers wide. Fritz had half a second to brace for impact before the blast hit him square in the chest. The concussion was loud, frost racing up Elsa's fingers and hand with the aftershock. The Asham champion flew backwards, head over heels, skittering across the floor in a useless flop of arms and legs.

Breathing out an arctic breath that only stoked the power glowing in her eyes, Elsa stood to her full height and basked in the electric glory of her power singing through her veins. She'd never been this deep in her magic before, never had a cause to, and the effects were addictive. There was power here, limitless by her understanding and so impressively cold. She looked at the chamber through new eyes, her ice rolling through a spectrum of colors. This wasn't like the last time she'd dueled in this room. This time the queen was prepared, her resolve as solid as iron. Gone was the scared little girl desperate to keep others away from her. In her place stood the Snow Queen, mistress of the high castle.

Inhaling, Elsa felt the hum of magic all around her like an orchestra, the icy chamber calling back to her in different pitches and notes. She could feel every inch, sense every fractal the deeper she plunged into her power and gloried in it. Stalagmites rose from the floor like jagged teeth with just a thought, the chamber shaking as Elsa called for her ice to swallow the champion.

_Let him know the true meaning of cold,_ a savage part of herself cried. It should have shocked her how fast she was sinking into darkness, but Fritz was the enemy threatening her and her family. Just like the Weselton brothers, Elsa would pass sentence in order to protect the ones she loved. Her eyes shifted momentarily towards the ceiling and the possibilities hanging there. She could have brought down the entire fourth floor and be done with this fight, sealing Fritz in a tomb of ice and leaving him there for Adrek to find. It was a good plan.

_Revel's on the fourth floor, _the more rational part of herself countered. _If you bring it down you'll kill him in the process. _

Frowning, because she knew it to be true, Elsa focused on the chamber around her and the dozens of ideas that sprang to mind. It would only take a thought to summon them to life, but how was she going to stop Fritz without causing him any harm? How was she going to balance the two?

_Focus, Elsa, _a familiar voice echoed from far away, the brand on her shoulder tingling. _You can't win a fight without causing pain. If you are to subdue him, you must first beat him. _

Saja's words struck a chord with the queen. The Frost Born was right. In order to subdue Fritz she'd have to beat him, but that certainly didn't mean she had to play fair. There was no honor in battle, only the simple, cruel fact that one person would live and the other would die. Elsa had no intention of killing the Asham champion, but that didn't mean she couldn't hurt him…that she _wouldn't_ hurt him.

Fingers of ice reached for him as he struggled to his feet, blood oozing from a cut above his eye and split lip. He spat out a pink wad of phlegm, whipping his mouth with this back of his hand. "So, the icy bitch does have some tricks up her sleeve," Fritz sneered, jumping away from the fangs of ice reaching for him, cutlass gripped white knuckle in his right hand.

"That and more," Elsa replied but kept the smile from her voice and face. "I'll say it again, Fritz. Leave and none of this has to happen."

Fritz barked with cynical laughter. "Pretty little words and promises mean nothing, especially the promise of a woman."

"You don't have to do this," she warned one final time. "You don't have to listen to Adrek; this doesn't have to be a test of devotion. I know you love him, so go be with him and just walk out of here together. I'll forget you two were ever here."

"A test of devotion?" Fritz gaped with open amusement. "Adrek is mine regardless of what I do, and he gave me an order, one that I am loath to disobey because it would leave loose ends. So no, I want this for my peace of mind," Fritz sniffed and charged again. The floor buckled and rolled under him like cresting waves, but Fritz came at her regardless, inhuman in the way he could dive past obstacles or brutishly smash through them.

_Let him come,_ the queen thought, her mind and will almost fully immersed in her power, heart thundering behind her ribs. _Let him get close again._

All she had to do was show him a small opening and let him in. Fritz took the bait and came within striking distance but had no time to stop or backpedal when he realized the trap. Elsa threw her shield aside and swung her sword over her head, only it wasn't a sword any longer but a whip made from chinks of interlocking ice. With a snap of her wrist the whip's tail raced towards him and wound around his neck. Bracing her feet and digging deep, Elsa jerked hard on her end, pulling Fritz towards her. His shocked expression melted away under the impact of her ice reinforced elbow which connected with side of his face with an audible crack. Droplets of blood spattered the mirror-like floor, and the champion began to fall. Still braced, the queen twisted and spun, dragging Fritz behind her with the momentum of her spin and let him go at the last second, flinging him across the floor like a ragdoll. He slid into a waiting stalagmite with an ugly thud and went still.

_Breathe,_ she told herself when she realized her lungs were starting to burn. _Keep breathing and keep calm._

The chamber fell into fragile silence, queen and champion still for the first time in minutes. For half a heartbeat Elsa stood in stunned shock. Fritz had yet to rise, his body crumpled a little less than thirty feet from her. Whip and shield dissolving, she walked slowly around the farthest edge of the chamber, cautious to approach should he spring back to life. She heard him groan and readied herself, but Fritz merely rolled onto his stomach, arms and legs trembling. It looked as if he were having trouble stabilizing his equilibrium, a small amount of blood trickling out of his right ear.

"Do you yield?" Elsa demanded, keeping her distance, hands raised to parry any attack.

Fritz raised his head and searched for his sword, found it a ways away, and swore, punching the ice under him and leaving behind a bloody smear. "Guess I don't have a choice do I?"

"So I ask again, do you yield?"

Groaning with the effort, the Asham champion pulled himself to his feet and leaned heavily against the twisted jut of ice behind him, hands on his knees. She could tell by the tightening in his shoulders and stormy color of his face that Fritz was seething. It was unclear whether or not he was more upset by the fact that he'd been bested by a woman or forced to submit by a queen. Whatever the cause, the champion was angry. After a long stretch of silence, Fritz lowered his head and sighed.

"I'm surprised by you, Queen Elsa. You don't fight fair. I had thought you'd keep to some moral code or something."

"Neither do you," she observed flatly.

"You're right. I don't."

She should have seen it coming. It was a textbook feint. Fritz lashed out with a well-aimed jerk and sent the small boot knife hidden in his palm whizzing towards her. Elsa caught the wink of metal and reflexively raised and lowered her shield. The tiny projectile bounced off with a faint ring and clattered uselessly at her feet. It was almost a comical move…almost. More annoyed than incensed Fritz had tried to sneak in one final attack, as if it made all the difference in countering his defeat, Elsa brought her power to just under her skin. Stamping her foot down, she was prepared to lose another blast from her palm, buzzing ice and frost swirling in her abdomen and racing to her extremities, when she felt the impact of a tiny silk bundle connect with the corner of her right eye. The delicate bulb ripped the second it hit, spraying an acrid black powder across her eyes.

At first nothing happened. Elsa stumbled back, tasting a strange mixture of spices on her lips when her tongue darted across them. Spice and something gritty she couldn't quite name. Then she made the mistake of inhaling and choked, fine powder sticking to her esophagus and coating her lungs. What hit next was the like the boom after a lightning strike, the explosion after the fuse burnt its way into the powder keg. Pain in an unimaginable spectrum grabbed her by the face and wouldn't let go. Her eyes snapped shut involuntarily as the toxic mix of pepper powder invaded the soft tissue of her eyes like hot pokers.

She didn't know she'd fallen until her knees and hands hit the ground. She attempted to scream but was choking at the same time. The world fell away in a blinding wash of white and red as the agony that had stolen her vision raged white hot and only amplified in scalding degree with each passing second. The queen clawed at her face trying to rid it of the powder but only managed to spread it around, intensifying the burn. Instinctively, Elsa reached for her magic, reached for the soothing balm of ice and cold, and was met instead by a wall of sound like hundreds of lightning strikes all happening at once. She tried to breathe, tried to think, but couldn't string her thoughts together into anything more cohesive than the instinctive shriek of pain! run! make it stop!

The queen felt as if she were shattering into a hundred thousand pieces under the brunt of the volcanic torment threatening to melt her face and choke her to death. Perhaps she was more fragile than previously thought because deep within the catacombs of her being, in the chamber housing the undulating ball of arctic power, something cracked under the extreme pressure of unexpected pain. It was an audible separation like hearing a knuckle crack or a bone break. Elsa knew what it was, and the terror she felt almost eclipsed her blinding…almost. It was the same as when Revel had broken her ice arrow all those months ago. That single, strained moment when she realized with a thrill of fear that she was breaking along with her ice, only this time it was reversed and on a massive scale. Elsa was now the arrow, her connection with her power the shaft snapping under the strain, cracking and fracturing and about to explode.

Fritz had done the unimaginable, and it was only through dumb luck that he'd succeeded. It wasn't a matter of skill or timing; he didn't know any magical incantation or herb that could rob a Frost Born of her power. The champion had simply thrown his packet as a last resort, and the effect it had was better than he could have hoped for. Curled into a ball with her forehead pressed against the icy floor, Elsa tried to force her eyes open and only served to spread the noxious powder further, releasing another wave of agonizing torture that tore a wordless scream from her throat and further splintered her already unstable magic. And once it started breaking, once she felt the fractures start to spread beyond her wavering control, the eruption was cataclysmic both internally and externally. Suddenly, the stress was too much and she lost her grip, and that was the beginning of the end.

The castle buckled, mirroring the buckling taking place inside her. High up on the fourth floor, spires began to fall. The floor under Revel's feet caving inward with a thunderous boom at the same moment the second and third floor imploded from the center, snapping upward like someone had punched it from underneath. Revel scrambled for footing as he slid towards the depression in the floor, fingers catching the edge of Elsa's ice bed at the last moment. Chunks of ceiling began to fall free, sky visible beyond, smashing around him with quaking thuds. He pulled himself free of the hole and caught a glimpse of the ice wall that had once been a door. There was a gap almost large enough for him to squeeze through where there had once only been a solid wall. Mind racing in a fevered panic, because he'd heard Elsa's screams and had beaten himself bloody in an attempt to reach her, Revel raced for the crack and began pushing his way out as the castle continued to decay around him.

On the lower third floor ballroom, Fritz lost his balance and stumbled away. He pressed himself against the outer wall of the chamber, watching wide eyed as the castle began to crumble. Elsa remained in the center of the room, twisted snarls of strange grayish blue ice trying to form around her but disintegrating before they had a chance to fully form. Roaring filled the room as the ice palace began to sag and fall, the queen's consciousness and will no longer holding it together. Her magic was beyond her reach, the chasm of pain too much to traverse, thus her creations began to unravel.

Outside in the elements, in the howling winds and blowing snow, standing guard as he was told to, a startled golem twisted around towards the castle, his spines rising involuntarily off his back. His creator was screaming in agony and he could feel the echo reverberate inside him like a bell. The shockwave grew louder and more intense until it vibrated every fractal of his being. Staggering, footing suddenly unstable, Marshmallow grabbed the sides of his head and released a tremendous roar as his connection with his creator severed like a lifeline being cut. His cry echoed for miles, startling birds from their nests and scattering herds of deer. It carried and carried even after Marshmallow no longer stood sentinel. The only indication that anything had ever stood between the mountain pass and the ice castle was the small triangular tiara that stuck out of the snow like a forgotten toy.

* * *

><p>A little ways down the mountain, the shockwave continued unseen but not unfelt. The creatures of the wild sensed the disturbance and fled. Flocks of birds, like writhing black clouds, took off into the sky. Herds of deer bolted from their forest haven, startling hunters and country folk alike in their haste to distance themselves from the silent scream. Even the wind seemed to become agitated, gusts of cold mountain air reaching the shores of Arendelle miles away and sending a shiver down the spines of its citizens. Some looked at one another with questioning glances while others looked towards North Mountain and silently wondered if something was wrong. The rolling shockwave of unbalanced power even startled horses in their stables, some rearing and screaming while others nickered unhappily and laid their ears flat against their head. Stable Master Florren grappled with a spooked mare, unsure of what had set her off.<p>

Back in the mountains, the royal party drew to an abrupt and loud stop when Anna's fjord pony suddenly reared, threatening to flip the sled and throw its passengers. Kristoff pulled hard on the reins, muscles straining, attempting to calm the big animal and bring it to heel. Behind him, the horses Sigmund and his men were ridding did the same, rearing and staggering as if startled.

"What's going on?" Sigmund shouted from behind the sled as he attempted to wrestle his ride back under control.

"I don't know! I don't speak horse!" Kristoff shouted back and breathed an audible sigh when the pony finally settled back onto all four legs and didn't rise again. She nickered uneasily, her flanks quivering and her eyes wide enough he could see the whites.

"That was weird…and a little terrifying," Anna said from the back of the sled, hands gripping the back of Kristoff's seat. She couldn't help but recall the memory of when she was younger and had been thrown from her pony. She'd broken her arm and cracked her head pretty good against the ground. It had taken a full day for her to regain consciousness, and the princess had been leery of the big creatures until her later teen years when the fear finally subsided. Now, however, she was reminded of their unpredictable power and shifted uneasily.

"I know…wait…do you hear that?" the mountain man said, letting the reins go slack in his hand and turned slightly. Anna gave him a funny look.

"I don't hear anything," she replied, cocking an eyebrow.

"It sounded like—"

Suddenly, a herd of deer twenty strong bolted from the tree line in a flash of gold and white and swarmed past them. Anna jumped and ducked as the frightened animals raced past, some bumping the sled and tumbling to the ground in a flail of thrashing legs and grunts. Those fallen few scrambled to their feet and kept running, and in the blink of an eye the herd was gone, their hooves pounding the fresh snow like tiny little drums receding the farther they ran into the forest. Then it was silent, and the silence spoke volumes. The party was at the final thresholds of trees before they dropped away in the wake of rising dark stone. There were supposed to be natural sounds that accompanied being submerged in nature, but they heard none of it. No birds, no squirrels, no nothing. Not even the wind blew anymore, which was remarkable.

"I don't…that was really weird," Anna breathed, her eyes on the place where the deer had disappeared. She twisted around to look in the opposite direction, hoping to find something that could explain their mad dash. Deer didn't just run in herds like that. Oftentimes, when a predator was present, they would scatter. She'd seen it happen plenty of times while accompanying Kristoff on hunting excursions. He'd make a sound and the deer would scatter, but never in a herd or a cluster unless it was females and their young. Anna searched the trees behind her but saw no sign of a bear or the occasional pack of wolves or anything. There was nothing there and no reason for the disturbance…well, none she could feel anyway. It wasn't something humans could sense any longer, but one small creature felt the disconnection and sat up with a startled jerk.

Olaf turned in the direction of the ice castle, his face suddenly stricken. He and Sven had been heading down to the troll territory when they'd run across Kristoff and Anna. The princess had spotted them first, flagging them down.

"Hey guys!" the little snowman had beamed waddling over, customary goofy grin on his face. "What are you doing up here…and what's with all the guards? Hi guards I don't really know!" he shouted, waving at Sigmund and his men.

"Olaf," Anna said gently taking his little stick arms in her hands, "did you see two riders go past you heading towards North Mountain? Think hard."

Olaf scoffed happily and playfully rolled his eyes. "Of course I did, but they didn't stop to say hello. Why? Do you know them?"

Anna and Kristoff shared a look that wasn't lost on the snowman. His jovial expression slipped a little. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"We think those two men might be trying to hurt Revel," Kristoff explained.

Olaf's hands shot up to his mouth and he gasped. "But, I thought everything was going to be okay."

"So did we," Anna whispered, hand pressed against her chest in hopes of chasing away the cold dread nesting there. The little snowman looked upset, pacing back and forth, which caused Sven to become agitated and grunt at Kristoff.

"I don't know either, buddy," he said, answering the reindeer as if he'd spoken. "But we need to get up there before something happens."

"I don't know if Elsa knows other people are coming to the ice castle, but big brother is there," Olaf suddenly brightened as he climbed into the back of the sled. Anna joined him, desperate for some company. She just needed to hold something of Elsa's close. Plus, Olaf was like a little brother to her.

"You think he can take on Adrek and Fritz?" the princess asked, forcing a smile and trying to stay positive.

"Of course he can! Marshmallow is the best guard there is!" Olaf winced and glanced over at the guards behind him. Sigmund didn't look amused. "Well, he's at least the best mountain guard! You guys do a great job all on your own."

Olaf's optimism had been a temporary balm to the situation, but that changed the moment he felt the disconnection. The little snowman looked confused at first, squinting and blinking in the direction of the ice palace that was less than ten minutes away from them. He had cut off midsentence in his retelling of his ride to the castle with Revel and their exchange with Marshmallow when the horses had reared and the deer ran by, and his silence was just another layer added to the slowly building tension.

"Olaf, what's wrong?" Anna asked, seeing his confused expression and feeling her blood run cold. She sat up straighter and shifted around so that she could see him fully.

"I…I don't know. Something doesn't feel right," he replied, flexing his little stick hands and looking down at his snowy body. It was strange. He'd felt like a shiver had gone through him, but that was impossible because he couldn't feel cold. Right? Well, he certainly felt _something_. Anna's hand was resting on his foot and it felt so warm and…wet. Why wet? And why wasn't he feeling the cool breeze from his flurry? Usually he could count the snowflakes that drifted down from his personal cloud above—

"Oh no," he whispered and looked up, eyes growing large. Anna followed his line of sight and gasped, hand over her mouth. Olaf's personal flurry was gone. But that was impossible! Elsa had made that flurry for him, and in three years it had never faltered…ever.

"Anna, I think something's happened to Elsa," he gasped, suddenly aware of what was wrong, and his fear captured all their attention. "I can't…I can't feel her any—"

And then he was gone, disintegrated into nothing but powder in the blink of an eye. Anna let out shrieking _No!_ at the same moment Kristoff jumped from his seat and landed in the back of the sled, his vision narrowing into a very fine point. His pregnant wife sat holding nothing but a carrot and frosted black chunks of coal, her eyes so wide and face so pale she looked on the verge of fainting.

"Kristoff he…he just…Olaf he just…Oh my god— oh, oh my god," her breath hitched in her throat and tears fell from her eyes. Anna looked up at him, the remnants of the little snowman cradled in her shaking arms, words escaping her. She didn't even shift when Sven approached the cart and searched it expectantly but looked up confused when his friend was nowhere to be seen. The bull reindeer glanced at Kristoff, almost as if to say _I know he was here a second ago…where is he now?_

"He said he couldn't feel my sister—" if Anna could have gone a shade more pale she'd have looked like ghost. Her heart was slamming so hard against her ribs it felt like a battering ram. "_Kristoff, my sister!_"

"No," he snapped and took Anna's face in his hands, forcing her to look at him and capping her panic. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she began hyperventilating. "Anna, look at me…look at me! We don't know for sure anything's happened."

"How can you say—"

"Because I know Elsa as well as you do," he interrupted, determined to be the pillar his wife needed to cling to even if he himself felt like at any moment he was going to crumble to dust just like Olaf had.

_Oh god, don't think about that right now. Anna, focus on Anna._

"Elsa's strong, Anna. She always has been. Something's wrong, that much is true, but Revel isn't going to let anything happen to her. You know it, I know it, even Sven knows it. It's going to be alright, but you have calm down or you'll go into labor. Please, calm down for me."

It was unfair to use their unborn children as a reason for the princess not to freak out because really all she wanted to do was scream and run fill tilt to her sister's castle. But her husband was right, and she attempted to calm herself with shaky breaths.

"Baron Kristoff, has something happened?" Sigmund asked, pulling his still jittery mount alongside the sled. He saw the terror on Anna's face and recognized what she was cradling but couldn't put two and two together.

"Olaf just…he… just disintegrated."

The big guard had no inkling of the magic the queen possessed or what the little snowman's disappearance or apparent disintegration meant, but he could judge from stricken look on Kristoff's face that something wasn't right. "What does that mean, sir?"

"It means my sister is either dead or dying," Anna hiccupped. "Her magic was what created Olaf. Only her magic could…" she couldn't bring herself to say "kill him" because she couldn't bring herself to accept the fact that Elsa could be gone.

"Then we must not waste time," Sigmund snapped.

"We're almost there," Kristoff replied and snapped the reins as hard as he could, dread settling over his shoulder like a boulder. If Olaf's sudden disappearance wasn't evidence enough that something horrible had happened at the ice palace, the strange static prickling coming from his troll gem was. He didn't know why it was suddenly so warm against his skin, but he suspected the queen was involved. They'd know soon enough what had happened, but he truly feared what they'd find once they reached the ice castle.

As promised, ten minutes later they crested the final rise and slipped through the mountain pass that opened onto the plateau directly in front of the castle, but none of them were prepared for what they found and what the implications could mean. The left face of the palace sagged like melting candle wax, the foundation crumbling at an alarming rate. Red fractures snaked along the castle's surface like slash wounds, yawning further and further open as the structure buckled and continued to slip. They could hear the deafening roar of cracking and falling ice as it broke free of the palace and bounced down into the chasm, shaking the ground as it went. Just as the group prepared to stop, one of the tallest spires broke free and came tumbling down with a thunderous crash, smashing against the castle and taking massive chunks with it as it fell. The horses reared and shied away again, moving back from the gap between rock faces with snorting displeasure.

"Elsa!" Anna screamed and climbed out of the back of the sled before it even came to a standstill with as much grace as her swollen stomach would allow. She would have raced up the cracking ice bridge, dodging falling debris as she went, had Kristoff not grabbed her and wrapped his long arms around her shoulders in order to keep her still.

"Anna, no! The castle's coming down. You can't go in there!"

"My sister's in trouble! I have to go to her!" Anna struggled and managed to wiggle free. For a pregnant woman, she was still surprisingly limber and strong to boot. This time, her husband grabber her wrist, his large hands easily encircling it, and physically pulled her back. "Let me go, Kristoff!"

"No! I'm not letting you go in there!"

"_Let me go_!"

"I'll tie you to the sled if I have too!" Kristoff took her by the shoulders and turned her away from the castle, forcing her once again to look at him. "Anna, stop — _stop_! What good are you to your sister if you get hurt or fall through the ice? I can't lose you. You or the babies! Please, let Sigmund and me go in and get her. You stay out here."

"I won't! I have to go to her, Kristoff! I have to make sure she's ok!"

"Anna, please, if you love me at all, you'll stay out here and let us go in." He hated himself for playing that card, but felt he had no other choice. Anna would push caution aside and run to her sister's side even if it meant getting hurt in the process. Kristoff couldn't stomach the idea of his wife or their unborn children being put in harm's way, but he certainly wasn't going to let Sigmund go in alone. He'd been in the ice palace before where the guards had not. He knew where Elsa might be and hoped to all the spirits in the sky and ground, to all the gods above and below, he wasn't too late.

"I hate you!" she screamed at him and pushed Kristoff hard in the chest, tears streaming down her face as panic consumed her. Suddenly she couldn't breathe, couldn't stop the desperate sobs that broke free from her chest. Her sister was dead or dying and once again she was forced to remain behind because she was weak…because she was a liability.

"I know you do, I know, but I have to keep you safe," he soothed, pulling her close even though she fought him. "You're my world, Anna. My moon and stars. I can't lose you."

"Kristoff please," Anna sobbed, her struggling turning into a desperate, clutching hug. "Please bring her back. Her and Revel…please."

The mountain man lifted his wife's red and tear soaked face towards his and brought their lips together. He held her for a breathless moment, pouring all the strength and love he had for her into that one kiss. When they broke apart, Anna was still crying, but she seemed to have calmed a bit.

"I swear I'll bring her back. No matter what it takes."

Anna could only nod as her husband motioned for the guards to follow him as he grabbed his hunting bow and quiver from the back of the sled.

"Baron Kristoff, allow one of my men to remain here with the princess for her protection. These are still the mountains after all, and we do not know if the king of Asham is near," Sigmund said hurrying to his side, a coil of rope slung across his chest and a small hand axe clutched in his hand.

Kristoff nodded his consent, knowing Anna would protest if she answered first. Glancing over his shoulder one last time, he gave his wife his best reassuring smile before unhooking his climbing axe and starting forward. The small party made it over the bridge with no issues despite it being choked with hair thin fractures. It appeared the massive double doors were still intact, so Kristoff set about wedging his axe into the near invisible crack and prying them open. Sigmund helped where he could. On their third attempt the castle shuddered violently and one door broke free with a tremendous pop. Kristoff threw out his arm to hold Sigmund back and grip something stable as the alcove they were huddled inside shook. The door slab hit the bridge at an angle and slid into the black chasm under them, winking in the fading light as it did.

"Kristoff!" he heard his wife shout.

"We're alright! Just stay there!" she shouted back and carefully turned back to the crumbling castle.

* * *

><p>Eventually, the castle stabilized after a moment, the cracking and grinding fading away as the ice settled. The whole episode had taken perhaps two minutes from start to finish, but the devastation was immense. Half the castle sagged, gravity slowly taking its toll and pulling the structure down the face of the mountain. It was unclear how long the ice palace would stand, but Fritz pushed that from his mind as he straightened and caught his balance. Glancing towards the stairs, he wondered with a gnawing fear if the second and first floor was still intact. He surmised that if the castle hadn't yet crumbled there was still a foundation somewhere, and he just had to hope that Adrek was alright. Under his feet, the third floor seemed to be leveling out like a chest finally exhaling. The queen remained in the center, her heavy breathing accompanying the pained groans of her icy home that eerily mirrored her own agonized whimpers.<p>

"I have to hand it to you," the champion said with a faint whistle, "that was pretty impressive."

"What did…w-what did you do?" Elsa choked, teeth gritted. It was the only way to keep herself from shaking.

"Blinding bulbs of my own design. Who know concentrated pepper powder would have that effect. Well, I say peppers like that's the only thing in that blessed little bulb. There's also powdered volcanic glass. Makes breathing near impossible once it starts shredding your lungs into pulp." Laughing, he slowly made his way towards the prone queen, eager to test the waters. His previous anger was gone, cocky swagger returning. Snatching victory out of the jaws of humiliating defeat couldn't have that effect

"I told you I don't fight fair," Fritz smiled, or so she thought he smiled. Elsa could hear a sick kind of glee in his voice. She could also hear his footfalls drawing near but that was it, the rest of her concentration split between the pain in her eyes and the blackness of the room. Suddenly, Fritz reached down and dug his fingers into her hair, hauling her to her feet with a savage yank. Unable to do anything more than follow, Elsa scrambled to stand, hands searching and finding his wrist but lacking the strength to pull free or dislodge him.

"I'm sorry, does it hurt?" he asked with mock concern. "Are you having trouble breathing?" The champion flexed his wrist up and down making her nod in agreement and wrenching a few pained winces as he did. "Yes? Well by all means, let me help you."

The fist that sank into her abdomen drove the breath from the queen and doubled her over. The knee that came next and connected with her chin snapped her mouth shut with a painful click and threw her backwards where she landed with an ugly thud. Elsa didn't think the pain could get worse until hot tears welled behind her tightly shut eyes, agitating the pepper powder and making it run down her face in grayish red streaks.

"I do apologize, that was ungentlemanly of me," Fritz grunted as he lashed out with his boot, catching Elsa in the ribs, unable to keep the grin from his face. Still trying to recapture her breath, she wheezed and rolled onto her stomach. "Then again," he continued, circling her, "I do owe you blood for blood, and you're certainly not bleeding enough."

Elsa realized with a sick twist that Fritz was enjoying this. She could hear it in his voice, in the happy flair he added to his words as if he were a child telling someone about a fun trip. She'd been wrong. He wasn't at all like Hans, he was worse. There was a level to Hans's cruelty, a limit he'd never venture beyond, but Fritz was different. He enjoyed hurting people which meant his little game wouldn't end quickly. Adrek had told him to make it look like a lovers quarrel, but Elsa suspected Fritz had already taken things too far but wasn't going to stop. Not when he was starting to have fun.

She felt his hand close around the back of her neck, fingers savagely tight, and pulled her again to her feet. "I'd like to play a game with you. Are you fond of games? I certainly am."

"Go to hell," she seethed. Her head snapped to the side with the force of his backhand, and Elsa thought she saw stars despite the fact that her eyes were still squeezed shut. She staggered and would have fallen had Fritz not swung around behind her, pulling her close.

"I've already been, and the devil sent me back. I would like you to know something before we begin," Fritz rasped into her ear, breath hot on the back of her neck. "Adrek had no intention of setting Revel up to take the fall. I set the trap that he blindly walked into. Gregor's murder was a crime of passion. I didn't know how many times I stabbed him after I slit his throat, but Revel? The little shit was going to be my first attempt at casual butchering. I wanted to see how much pain I could cause him before the life left his eyes. You don't know power until you've snuffed out a life.

"So I wonder…how much pain can you handle? They say pain is weakness, so I want to see how weak I can make you, because I think you've forgotten what it feels like to be human," he sneered, the hand around her throat that held her flush against his torso tightening like a vice. She tried to twist free of him, tried desperately to reach for her magic, but it was a fractured mess inside her, fragments like grains of glowing sand skittering away from her whenever she reached. When she felt steel against her side, Elsa froze and tried her hardest not to flinch.

"Yes, that's right," he cooed. "Under it all, you're just a human with a unique ability who's used to the finer things in life. But I have to confess, living within a castle makes you soft. It makes you vulnerable because who would ever touch a _royal_? Well, I love showing the aristocracy just how _human_ they can really be."

Slowly, Fritz pressed his cutlass against Elsa's left side, the inner curve resting against his inner arm for leverage, and began to pull it across her skin. The razor sharp blade bit deep and the queen screamed, agony overtaking her. Inch by bloody inch he moved, deliberately taking his time and reveling in the effect. It felt like an eternity before he pulled the cutlass away, blood pouring from the wound and soaking through Elsa's shirt and tights. She shivered in his arms, her breath hardly controllable and her magic well and truly out of her reach now. To add insult to injury, because he really was enjoying this more than he should be, the Asham champion delivered a savage fist to the wound and Elsa buckled, legs turning to jelly under her as her consciousness began to fade in and out. Fritz let her fall and stepped away, switching his cutlass to his right hand and shaking her blood from the left.

_Please!_ Elsa screamed into the void, to whoever was listening._ Saja! Snaer! Please help—_

Thunder, heat, and always more pain swallowed her as Fritz's heavy boot caught her in the stomach and flipped her onto her back. Had she had anything in her system, she would have vomited. As it was, Elsa only gagged, back arching off the ground, and ground her teeth in the effort of silencing another scream.

"Feeling weak yet? Feeling faint? I do have to admit, you're lasting a lot longer than Lastasha did. Granted, you had the ability of your ice and you actually had the balls to fight back, but still. At least you're not groveling for your life…yet."

Lastasha…Elsa knew the name and felt the tilt of the earth. Her first conversation with Revel on the parapets...they'd spoken about the death of Queen Lastasha of Evendelle. She'd been murdered by a duke's warband…by a—

"Y-you?" was all she could grate out as she attempted to roll into her knees, right hand holding the gash in her side and left used for support.

"Ah, so you know about Lastasha," Fritz laughed. He sounded a little ways away, his voice coming from different directions as he circled her like a shark catching the scent of blood. "I'm sure I'd see shock in your eyes could you open them. Tell me, did you know my stepsister well?" Elsa remained silent, too thunderstruck to answer. "I didn't think so. She began as simply a Baron's daughter and only ever had dealings in Prussia. My cunt stepmother, the Baroness Drescher, made sure of that. She married my stepsister off to Esteven after his first wife died of influenza, and wasn't she just so proud watching her daughter catch the eye of the king and swoon into the arms of a man who would take care of the both of them. And she could have if Lastasha wasn't such a conniving bitch."

"You…k-killed—her?" Elsa hoped that if she could keep him talking she'd get enough of a break between his assaults to reach her magic and her only hope for survival. It was there, she could sense it; she just couldn't draw it to the surface through the veil of pain.

"I put a crossbow quarrel in her stomach and in her chest. Stomach first so she could know that the little brat growing inside her died first. Oh, that was a sweet touch. She screamed and cried and begged. It was everything I'd ever hoped for and more."

"Why…?" Elsa gasped, unable to believe the level of nonchalance Fritz seemed to have while retelling the story. He'd shot a pregnant woman?

"Why?" Fritz inquired, a gleeful curiosity in his voice. "Because the bitch thought she could blackmail my lover. Evendelle's had Asham by the balls for years. Lastasha found out about Adrek and I around the time Gregor did. It was her mother, Isabella, who broke the news to the king that his son was having a relationship with another man…with me. It just killed Gregor to know that Adrek and I were together. Imagine, the boy he'd taken in after his father died and his bitch stepmother had kicked out of _his_ rightful home, had the audacity to climb into another man's bed."

"She knew…for that many years?" the queen managed, her breath steadily evening out. She was on her knees now, hands pressed firmly against the cool floor. As gruesome as it was, Elsa was beginning to grow accustomed to the searing pain in her side and eyes. She knew she was bleeding badly, but for the moment her body was calming after the first of Fritz's assaults, the chasm between her and her magic lessening. Beyond the burn of her wounds, she could feel the slick, cool ice under her. Cool…it was strange feeling the sensation of temperature when she was so used to feeling constantly cold. But it wasn't just temperature the sensitive pads of her fingers were picking up. There was something there, some distant spark she couldn't quite grasp. For the moment it was out of her reach, but Elsa was determined to discover what the pinprick of color floating in the black sea of her blindness was.

"She knew for years. I told Adrek we should have shut her up like we shut up Gregor, or at the very least hire an assassin. I warned him she'd never let him live it down so long as I was in his life, but he was convinced Lastasha could be kept quiet by giving her what she wanted. He didn't know the depths of her greed…the depth of a _woman's_ greed."

Elsa heard the way Fritz inflexed the word _woman_ and felt a chill work through her as realization dawned. Suddenly, it wasn't about following his king's orders or protecting what was his. That was only half the issue and the superficial excuse Fritz used. The other half, the driving half, was Fritz's own boiling hatred for something as simple as a different sex.

"You hate all of us, don't you?" she asked quietly.

"Why shouldn't I?" he countered lightly, stopping in front of her. "Nothing ever good comes from a woman. The world was built on the back of men. You lot just have the uninviting task of squeezing a squalling brat out from between your legs."

"Seems you're lacking in the knowledge of proper parenting," Elsa couldn't stop herself from muttering. No blow came like she'd expected, but there was a crackle in the air.

"The only mother I had hacked my balls off when I was eight. She forced me to wear women's clothing while my father was out of the house and serve her and her daughter like I was a servant. She humiliated me at every turn, emasculated me in front of friends and those of the higher aristocracy. She even went as far as hiring a whore to fuck me and sat back and cackled when the bitch realized I was missing half my potency."

"But we're not all the same. Blaming an entire gender on the actions of one twisted person isn't right. There is good and bad in the world that can come from both sexes. One is not above the other in fault or blame."

"Oh believe me, I know. I'm sure your lover has a different view of his father, but the fact still remains that Gregor was just as much of a cunt as Isabella. When Adrek needed him most, he turned his back and disowned him. Imagine, being ostracized by the man who raised you because you think and feel differently."

"Yes, imagine killing someone because they _thought differently_," Elsa grunted, still fighting off the effects of the powder.

"Playing to my humanity isn't going to save you, _Majesty_. Everything I did was to protect Adrek. He means everything to me, and I'll do whatever it takes to make certain his rule and his kingdom remain safe. I'm sure you understand and that you know a thing or two about sacrifice."

"Yes, I do." Elsa fought to sit back on her legs, hunched with pain but sitting up at least. "I know what sacrifice means. I've done it all my life, and I know you've both made sacrifices, but you also enjoy causing pain and making others suffer so that you can have the life you want. I'm sorry for the pain you and Adrek have been put through but—"

She'd been sitting on her knees facing him but flew backwards senselessly when the heel of Fritz's boot struck her directly in the center of her chest. This time, when Elsa felt something tearing within her, it had nothing to do with her magic. She knew there was no point in gasping for breath, but her body did it anyway and she was starting to feel the effects of the pulverized volcanic glass in the powder. Her lungs were on fire.

"Did I say I wanted your fucking pity or sage advice? I'm not telling you any of this for sympathy. It's just giving me a chance to watch you bleed some more."

Elsa rolled onto her right side and coughed, blood spattering across the floor. She didn't realize she was chuckling until the echo returned to her. There was so much exquisite pain raging within her body that it brought the queen to the edge of madness. Her bloody lips curled at the edges into a broad smile as the audacity of the situation finally reached her fractured mind. There really wasn't any mirth to be found aside from sad the fact that she was being beaten to death by a fully grown man throwing a tantrum.

_Imagine, my rule coming to an end because one man had a vendetta against all women, and I just happened to be on the wrong side of the argument._

It wasn't a surprise when Fritz landed another booted blow to her torso. Curled on her side, Elsa took the punishment, blooms of color sparking behind her eyes with each savage connection. She physically felt a few ribs snap but didn't have the energy to even attempt to block the blow let alone cry out. It was just another layer of pain piled atop the hundreds that already existed. When Fritz reached down and pulled her up by her arm, she half expected him to bury his cutlass into her stomach and be done with it.

"You're right, though. I really do enjoy what I do. It's a perk of the job and one Adrek is more than happy to grant me. He doesn't have the stomach for such…physicality. All the better, I guess. I don't have to hold back."

Despite her slender build, Elsa was a solid woman, so it was remarkable that Fritz was able to throw her so hard. She slid across the uneven surface of her slowly disintegrating castle, rolling and tumbling and feeling the gash in her side stretch and twist as she did. When at last she came to stop it was abruptly against a spine of ice which dug into her shoulder seconds before she heard and felt the pop. Not surprisingly, the ache set in instantly, but it was almost fully eclipsed by the growing agony that was the rest of her body. Elsa didn't know what was damaged until she tried to push herself up and discovered that only her right arm seemed to be responding. Across the chamber, she heard the ring of steel on ice as Fritz retrieved his cutlass.

_I can't do this,_ she thought, slipping back against the cold floor, beyond the point of her physical limits of pain and exhaustion. _I'm so sorry, Revel. I should have listened to you. I'm not…I wasn't strong enough. _

Tears stung her eyes, mixing with the pepper powder. She didn't even know if he was still alive or not. Judging from the slow decay of her castle, it was possible Adrek had never made it to the fourth floor, but that also meant that Revel might not be able to get out once the castle did finally fall. So was that going to be their fate? Entombed in the remnants of her ice palace? What would happen to Anna if Fritz and Adrek escaped? Would they kill her to keep her silent or blame the destruction on the queen?

"I'm so sorry, Anna," Elsa whispered and felt her tears roll down her face. "I'm sorry for everything."

_Get up and fight back!_

Elsa jerked in surprise and looked up despite not being able to see anything. "Saja?"

_Fight back, Frost Born!_

"How…how are you talking to me? My magic's gone." She wasn't sure if she were actually hearing her ancestor or not. She'd not felt the familiar flare of heat on her brand whenever the first Frost Born reached out to her. Then again, her entire left side was going steadily numb.

_You're magic hasn't gone anywhere; it's just blocked. I told you pain is weakness, but it's not a means to an end. I was trying to tell you that you must push through it. If you want to see your lover and sister again, get up!_

"I can't see him to fight back!"

_When one sense is taken we learn to use another, or have you already forgotten that I lost both my arms?_

"At least you could still see!"

_Sight comes in many forms, Elsa, as does magic. Focus. Concentrate. Push past it._

"Talking to yourself now?" Fritz chuckled, taking his time. "Have you finally lost your sense, Queen El—"

The champion pulled up short and spun around, anticipating an attack. He'd seen the reflection of a woman in the cracked, mirror-like wall, but there was no one there. Turning slowly, his senses open and searching for another presence, Fritz looked back over at the prone Arendelle monarch and blinked in confusion. The woman was still there, staring at him with eyes that pierced him to his very core. She looked just like the queen save for her strange leather and fur attire and long, white hair. When he blinked the image was gone, but the unsettling feeling of being watched, weighed and measured crept into the space between his shoulder blades.

Suddenly, the castle shuddered violently around them as its precarious grip on the mountain face slipped a fraction more. Something high above shifted and broke free with a tremendous pop. A second later, the floor under Elsa bucked as a massive slab of ice the size of a small row boat crashed into the third floor, throwing jagged shards of ice in every direction. Elsa felt a few shards snap across her face and rolled quickly onto her stomach, unsure whether or not anything more was going to fall. That's when she felt the shift.

Right hand pressed firmly against the floor, Elsa saw that strange pinprick of golden light wink into existence in the blackness of her blindness. It was unimaginably small, like a firefly twinkling at a distance, but there was a familiar hum that accompanied the light. More pieces of the ceiling slipped free and crashed to the ground with thunderous booms, but the queen lay frozen where she'd fallen. Each time something hit the ground the ball vibrated and changed color. Heart soaring into her throat, Elsa mentally latched onto the tiny speck of light and focused all her concentration onto it. The world fell away, the pain of her broken body, the destruction of her castle, the exhaustion pulling at her consciousness: everything became a distant gray blur in the wake of something extraordinary. Another large piece of ice dislodged, but she hardly heard it crash mere feet from her because the second it touched the floor was the second Elsa pulled that humming ball of light to her and the chamber erupted into a spectacular blast of color.

Blue, pink, red, yellow, orange, green, indigo, every color imaginable swirled behind her still tightly closed eyes, splashing against one another like waves crashing against a rock wall. It was dizzying at first and almost too much to bear. Startled, she yelped and scrambled back, but realized with a thrill of amazement that her movement created more waves of color. No, not waves…ripples. The entire chamber was alive with hundreds of thousands of ripples as pieces of ice continued to fall like thunderous rain. And for the first time since her blinding, Elsa could see through the ripples, as they raced over every inch of fallen ice and down through every crack, the details of the chamber. She saw the buckled and splintered floor, the cracked walls, the falling ceiling, but most importantly and the thing that made her almost cry with ecstatic relief was the black silhouette of Fritz.

But the ripple vision only lasted a few more seconds until the last chunk of ceiling fell. Then the chamber returned to blackness and the queen felt her heart plummet through her stomach. To be gifted with sight only for it to be stripped away seemed like the ultimate cruelty. Elsa almost sobbed, working right hand pressed firmly against the uneven ice behind her. She stared into the unmoving, acrid blackness like a hunter leaning into the wind in order to catch the movement of prey, barely trusting herself to breathe. Movement…that was all it took. Fritz, who'd been hanging back as the ceiling gave way, finally thought it safe to approach, and his footfalls created more blessed ripples of multicolored light that lit up a small portion of the chamber in his wake and painted him in a vague, fuzzy outline. The more he walked the more ripples he created, and the more Elsa could see.

_How is this possible,_ she thought, watching the bands of light move across the floor, illuminating snippets of the room as they went.

_Sight does not always involve your eyes. This is your ice, Elsa. It is a part of you. It can be your eyes when you have none,_ Saja replied. _Now fight back._

Teeth gritted, Elsa reached for her magic again and was met with the same wall of cataclysmic thunder. Instinctively, she shrank away from the roar and the pain it lanced through her head. It was too much all at once, but she had to push through it.

_Sound is just sound. It can't hurt me,_ she told herself and reached again.

Again thunder, but this time Elsa steeled herself and pressed through the veil, reaching over the yawning chasm to where her fragmented magic lay scattered like grains of sand across a marble floor. Noise still assaulted her as she reached, threatening to throw her back into uselessness, but a queen bows to no one, not even her own discomfort at times. Elsa knew she couldn't gather all her magic back into herself, that would take time which she didn't have, but even a small sliver was something. It could be worked with and molded. It could be used as a weapon. The first spark of cold that winked to life in her palm was like plunging her hand under a layer of lake ice after it had been set aflame. The relief was tangible, and Elsa felt more tears streak down her face, taking the acrid powder with it. The second spark was an inkling of rightness, and the third was balance. She didn't have much, but it might be enough. It _had_ to be enough.

"So," Fritz said with a smile in his voice, "are we ready to finish this?" he grinned as he watched her struggle to stand, blood droplets blooming on the floor under her as the gash in her side continued to bleed.

Elsa gnashed her bloody teeth and heaved herself into a standing position. The ice crackling against her palm gave her strength, her resolve hardening into an iron will. She would not let Fritz leave this chamber. No matter the cost, no matter the pain or sacrifice, she would be the last woman, the last human, he ever assaulted again.

"I can see I have more work to do. I'd thought you were finished, ice princess."

"Fritz, I'm the fucking Snow Queen."

The projectile sizzled from her outstretched right hand and barely nicked the skin of his neck in its passing. Startled, the champion jerked to the side, waking another wave of ripples that allowed the queen to track him. The second shard caught him in the left hip, burying into his skin like a crossbow bolt. Fritz grunted and looked down in stunned shock before ducking another shard.

_Readjust to the right,_ Elsa told herself, following his hazy silhouette.

It was hard to judge distance by the ripples. Everything was black until something moved, and she wasn't used to her seismic sight and either overcompensated or undercompensated depending on where she thought he was. The champion moved around the room, unnerved that the woman he thought he'd blinded was suddenly able to follow his movements, head cocked to one side as if listening. It wasn't until he ducked around a large jut of ice and held still that she stopped firing at him. Struggling to catch his breath and unable to move as fast with the ice shard lodged deep in his hip, Fritz leaned around the jut and watched the queen. She was steadily making a slow circuit of the room, keeping to the wall and periodically bumping it with her elbow. He didn't know if that was significant or not, but the chill creeping into his spine as he watched her was unsettling. Despite the fact that her head was down and her eyes were still tightly shut, she seemed to sense what was around her and stepped over obstacles with relative ease.

"Goddamn winter witch and her fucking powers," he hissed, back pressed against the ice behind him. Shaking hands attempted to pry the shard free, but it felt like it hit the bone and was lodged there. Falling back, the champion attempted to get his bearings. He didn't know how Elsa was doing it, didn't care. All he knew was that she had to die no matter the cost, but how was he going to get close? An idea slowly came to light as he looked around the room at all the fallen pieces of ceiling. Hefting a sizable chunk of ice, Fritz checked where the queen was again before throwing it in the opposite direction of where he stood. As expected, Elsa snapped around towards sound and movement, but didn't fire off a shot like he thought she would. Trying again, he threw another piece in a random direction, but instead of following it, the jut he was hiding behind suddenly exploded, sending him tumbling across the floor.

There wasn't time to swear or even process what to do next. Ice erupted around him, sharp and deadly. He felt the needles piece his skin and kicked off, jumping over whatever was in his way as he ran from the wave of spines drawing ever nearer. No time to form tactics or a clever plan; the champion turned towards the queen and ran as hard as he could. Elsa felt him coming, heavy footfalls waking multicolored ripples that shone in the hazy gray that had become her chamber. The longer she focused on the ripples the clearer her ice castle came into focus, layers of darkness stripped away as the fractals sang to their mistress. When two more projectiles failed to hit their target, Fritz was moving at an almost reckless speed towards her, Elsa called for the floor to rise up. The champion snarled and dodged where he could, but he couldn't keep his footing for long and tumbled when a wickedly sharp flute of ice punctured his left calf.

Desperate to keep the ice from closing in around him, Fritz thrashed to his feet, but it was too late. One foot was almost entirely locked down and the other wasn't far behind. Searching for something to smash the ice with, he'd lost his cutlass again, the champion picked up a decent sized chunk of fallen ceiling and went to break his bonds when another idea came to mind and he changed trajectory. With a forceful snap he sent the chunk hurtling towards the queen who was so preoccupied with making sure he didn't move she wasn't able to stop the ice from connecting with her torso. The shock of the impact and the bloom of pain it created momentarily broke her concentration, giving Fritz the opening he needed to end the duel. Rushing her, he caught Elsa in the temple with a savage fist that almost buckled her had the champion not wrapped his arms around her slender waist, trapping her hands at her side.

"I have to say," he panted, breath hot against her face, "I wasn't expecting that last burst. It was impressive. See?" he said shifting his grip, "You've managed to impress me, which is remarkable."

Reeling from the blow to her head, Elsa felt her forehead come to rest against Fritz's chest, the room fading to black as the ripples subsided and the champion's bulk blocked her vision. Had anyone walked into the chamber it would have looked as if the two were sharing an intimate embrace, and the thought sickened her. Not because she was being touched by such a vile human, but because to someone else it would appear the queen was weak, having to be held up by another. When fresh pain lanced through her side, Elsa jerked and stifled a scream. Fritz was slowly increasing the pressure of his squeeze, digging the knuckles of his hands into the small of her back and pushing the air from her lungs.

"I'll be sure to tell your sister you fought valiantly before I kill her." Elsa must have had a stricken look on her face because Fritz laughed. "What? You thought she'd escape from this whole mess unscathed? Oh no, you've single handedly sentenced your pretty little sister to death. Her husband too, if he struggles. I told you, you should have handed Revel over in the first place. But no, you put the love you have for your lover over the needs of your subjects. How utterly un-queenly of you."

Elsa felt something wickedly sharp press into the small of her back just above here Fritz's hands were and gritted her teeth. It was too narrow to be his cutlass so it must be a fang of ice. The champion shifted forward a step and the point broke her skin, wrenching a small whimper from her. Groping in the darkness, Elsa mentally reached for the ice, but Fritz must have felt her shift because his forehead smashed into the bridge of her nose and the queen went senseless under a blinding flash of white. Distantly, she wondered if he'd broken something.

"Did you know that it doesn't take much to impale someone? Just the right amount of leverage and a push is all you need. It'll take you a few minutes to die, but at least you've chosen a magnificent tomb. Maybe they'll even bring Anna up here." Leaning in, because this really was the most fun the champion had had in years, he whispered, "Unlike you, your sister won't put up a fight, and who knows, maybe I'll even let her experience the potency of a _real_ man. Hmm? Fuck her bloody then slit her throat. A fitting end to the last Arendelle royal."

Elsa didn't realize the wad of bloody phlegm had left her lips. Spitting was such a crass gesture, but it seemed the appropriate thing to do in the wake of a threat like that. She didn't have enough room to summon a proper spike to kill Fritz like her body was screaming for her to do; the lance would most certainly spear her as well, but apparently that wasn't necessary. The queen felt the champion jerk back and grunt in surprise, his grip loosening, and that's when she saw it. Within the veil of darkness, Elsa saw, once again, a tiny speck of light; only this one wasn't so far away. It was right in front of her, mere inches, imbedded in Fritz's neck like a thorn. Instinct drove her now, overriding the pain and fogginess, and she muttered one simple word…

"Spread."

And her ice obeyed.

Fritz gagged and fully released her as he staggered back. With no energy to keep herself standing, Elsa slid to the floor with a wordless cry as the spine behind her laid open her back from hip to shoulder in a ragged, uneven line. Shaking, her body going into shock, she raised her head, unsure what she was seeing but unable to turn away. Through the ripples of her seismic sight, she watched the champion struggle to draw breath as her ice invaded his body. He went down to his knees, clawing at his throat until he gouged bloody furrows in his skin. The ice continued to spread. He slipped to the floor, bucking and thrashing. The ice continued to spread. His body began to twist and bend, arching off the ground, and still the ice continued to spread. Elsa watched in stunned horror as a bloom of watery, pinkish blue color winked to life in his shadowy silhouette. His esophagus faded into focus, quickly followed by his lungs and lower intestines. Ice raced through his veins, uncountable and spindly like the roots of a tree under his skin, freezing his blood. Next came his bones, each joint and marrow pocket appearing. The ripples of his frantic thrashing illuminated the small portion of floor around him, and Elsa could clearly see Fritz's twisted expression and bulging eyes. Back arced off the floor, his mouth locked open in a permanent attempt to draw breath. Eventually, Fritz's thrashing stilled to just small tremors and then faint jerking before they subsided entirely. Slowly, slowly, the darkness of his silhouette warmed like a sunrise as Elsa's ice consumed him from the inside out, cementing him to the floor. The last organ to go still was his heart. She watched it slow as her ice encased it, fingers of blue and pink turning it to marble. Then all was quiet for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

Elsa stared down at the corpse, mouth hanging open. She could see him clearly now, his features softening but still twisted even in death. Reaching out, because half of her believed this couldn't possibly be real, she touched his hands and snatched it back with a startled cry when his fingers twitched. Suddenly, she remembered what Saja had done to Gunnar and put her only functioning hand over her mouth.

_No…it's not the same. This isn't the same. I didn't…_

But it was and she had. When she spread her fingers, hesitantly calling to her ice, the champion's corpse responded and raised its arm in a jerky, stop-motion movement. Elsa released her grip and shrank back, horrified at the thing she'd just created, at the life she'd just taken. Yes, it had been in self-defense, but it was still a life gone, snuffed out by her hands. The first life she'd taken…ever. Breath coming in ragged gulps, she attempted to stand, to get away from her deed, and managed it on her second try. The gash on her back prevented her from fully straightening, torn fabric clinging to the bloody wound, but she got her feet under her and lean against the wall, taking a moment to stabilize herself. Elsa didn't know how badly she was injured, couldn't even count her pains anymore, but at least she was standing and her vision was slowly starting to clear. Most of the pepper power had been flushed away by her tears.

_I'm alive,_ she breathed. _Beaten and bloody, but still alive._

Hard to believe, but she'd made it through another assassination attempt, and Elsa would have celebrated with a relieved sigh had she not felt and seen through her seismic sight someone entering the chamber. Hope wanted it to be Revel, but reality was far more cruel.

"No," she heard the king of Asham whisper as he pulled up short. From where he was standing he could clearly see his dead lover frozen to the floor, eyes open and staring at nothing. "Oh god, Fritz, _no!_"

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><p><strong>AN: **Yep, that all happened. Also, I believe I need to say something. In this chapter we find out about Fritz and Adrek's relationship, but I want to make it clear to you all that I will not tolerate any homophobic remarks or slurs in my review boxes. This is not a political arena. If you don't like what I've written, please feel free to stop reading/following me. I, myself, have no issue with those who find love with the same sex, and this chapter/fic does not portray my internal thoughts on the matter. I wrote King Gregor's reaction to finding out his son was gay based on how someone of that time period would have reacted, not based on my own personal feelings. So please, be kind and think about what you're typing before you post it in a review. Not for my sake, I can take the abuse, but for those of us from different backgrounds and genders, ideas of love and happiness. Thank you.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** So here we are, the final deep plunge as we embark on the last three chapters. Read away my lovelies, read away and prepare yourselves. It's always darkest before dawn. And on a side note, thank you to all my readers and reviewers who helped push this massive story over the 500+ review line. I never though I'd write something that people seem to generally love, and I'm more than touched by the response. So thank you, everyone, for making this experience a wonderful one and giving me the confidence to keep plugging along. If we can get this fic over 1K reviews I'm fairly certain I'll legitimately cry. You all are the best. Keep doing what you're doing!

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><p>Revel's desperate need to reach Elsa bordered on frenzied madness. He'd heard her first agonized scream echo through the icy structure seconds before everything went deceptively and eerily still. The former captain stood in frozen terror, his body tense as a bow string as he strained to listen for any more sounds. Silence greeted him, and it was more terrifying than if he'd been listening to the cacophonous roar of battle because then, at least, he'd know his love was alive and fighting back. But in the stillness, with his pulse rushing in his ears, Revel felt his fervent hope dissolving into crushing despair.<p>

_Please, for the love of God, please be okay._

Unable to take the torment of silence, Revel raced to the center of the room and dropped to his knees, straining to see through the wavy, translucent floor for any sign Elsa was still alive. His face smashed against the ice, he thought he saw two shapes: one sitting still while the other moved in an almost cautious circuit of the room. Revel had no time to decide which was Elsa and which was Fritz. He jumped back with a startled jerk when the floor directly under him shuddered and cracked, spider web fractures snaking across the floor. Holding his breath, he attempted to move back when the first wave of destruction hit. The floor buckled inward at a savage angle as if some massive giant were pulling it towards the third floor. Even the ceiling began to cave in, bowing towards him as if straining under a tremendous amount of pressure. Revel scrambled to grab ahold of something solid as the floor began to give way, large chunks slipping free and crashing to the third level beneath him. Fear gripped his heart like a vice as realization of what was happening slowly dawned. The only reason Elsa's ice palace would be falling was if she were dead…

_No! She's alive…she _has_ to be!_

Snippets of the large chamber under him appeared as bigger chunks slid free, but Revel still wasn't able to catch sight of the only person that mattered. If wishes held any power, or prayers for that matter, he desperately hoped that some kind deity would hear him. But Revel knew better than to rely on hope and faith alone. Grinding his teeth, determination boiling in his blood, he hauled himself away from the sinkhole and staggered towards where the door had been, his legs unsteady as the structure continued to shiver. Gravity seemed to be doing a fine job of tearing the palace to pieces as it began to lean precariously to the left. Another shiver ran through the structure, stronger than the last, opening more cracks and widening the hole in the center of the room. The drop to the third level was well over twenty feet, meaning it was impossible to make without breaking any bones. So Revel had to find another way down. If only the door wasn't sealed—

The former captain's searching eyes found the crack in the wall where the doors had been, and his heart flew into his throat. It was perhaps two and a half feet wide at its largest point towards the floor, but it was like a sign, a shout in the darkness that drew his attention to a finite point. There is your escape, it said, now go save her. Somehow, and he'd never really remember how because he wasn't necessarily a slender man, Revel managed to squeeze through, scraping his chest and back in the process as he wiggled at an angle until his shoulders were clear. Groping for a handhold, he latched onto a crack and pulled himself the rest of the way through.

Standing on wobbly legs, the floor beneath him uneven and pitted with deep cracks that could swallow his leg in an instant, Revel carefully made his way toward the stairs, using the wall for support. The castle continued to shake, distant rumbling echoed by thunderous crashes from within as more pieces of ice slid free. Distantly, he wondered how much longer they had before the structure fell. If the foundation gave way it would mean certain death for them all.

_Keep moving. Just keep moving._

He made it to the small antechamber set atop the spiral staircase but was dismayed to find it sealed shut. Apparently, Elsa had the foresight to ice it closed should Adrek find the stairs, but that meant getting to the third floor was near impossible. He'd gone from being locked in a room to be locked on an entire floor, and the desolation he felt was crippling.

"Fuck!" he swore and raked his hands through his hair. There wasn't any other way down aside from those stairs or a near fatal drop to the third floor, and even that wasn't guaranteed. He could fall all the way to the entrance chamber, dead upon impact, and then what good would he be?

_What good are you anyway? You let her trap you in a room then go down and face Fritz and Adrek alone. If she dies, it's your fault!_

Through the near constant snapping and cracking, Revel heard a sound that very nearly froze the blood in his veins and stopped his heart. Elsa screamed again, but this time it lingered far long than it should have and was soaked with so much pain is made Revel physically nauseous. It was a scream of agony, of torture, and when it subsided, the former captain was shaking so violently he had to steady himself against a wall.

_He's torturing her,_ he realized with a twist of sickening dread. _Oh god, Adrek let Fritz off his leash. _

"_Elsa!_" he screamed, spinning around, frantic to find a way to her. He would search every wall and every corner, beat himself bloody, and smash himself to pieces in order to find a way down. For the moment, the castle seemed to settle and he set to work scouring every inch of the fourth floor for another way out. He even went down in his hands and knees, numb fingers searching for a crack wide enough he could attempt to smash through, but there were none. Revel was to the point of seriously contemplating crawling back through the crack in the bedroom wall and attempting to climb to the third floor via the sinkhole when the castle lurched again, settling more to the left, and threw him off balance. Feet finding little purchase on the frictionless ground, the small spikes driven into his boots hardly catching on the uneven surface, Revel toppled sideways and hit the ground with an ugly thud. His vision swam as he lay on his side for a few senseless moments. Lying against the floor he could feel the dying heartbeat of the castle as it continues to shudder, crying out in agonized roars as icebergs shifted somewhere unseen but were felt throughout the structure. Eventually he was able to shake the dizziness from his head, but when he sat up, Revel was startled to see a woman standing across the hallway from him.

Time stopped as the two stared at one-another. At first glimpse she looked exactly like Elsa save for the fact that she was probably a good ten years older and wore her long hair loose over her shoulders with small braids woven with chainmail at her temples. It didn't take but half a second for Revel to realize that he was seeing Saja again, and her presence with him was no less terrifying and unsettling than it had been the first time he'd seen her when he'd touched the brand on Elsa's shoulder. This time, however, Saja looked different. Her posture was hunched and her expression pained despite her best efforts in appearing tall and strong. Revel noticed a grisly gash on her left side, a wound that could prove fatal if it was deep enough, and numerous cuts and bruises on her face, neck, and what little of her ice arms he could see.

_You have to get to her,_ Revel heard a voice say, echoing around him in the cracks and pops of the dying castle. _She doesn't have much time._

He felt a tingling under his shirt where the troll crystal Elsa had given him sat flush against his skin, but chose to ignore it. "How…"

_No time. She's fading fast¸_ Saja replied, her lips never moving but her voice coming from all directions.

"I don't understand. Why are you hurt? Are you helping her?" he asked, pulling himself to his feet.

_I'm feeding off the energy of her pain. What she….feels…I feel, at the moment._

Revel physically felt the blood drain from his face as he realized the implications of Saja's words. These weren't wounds unique to her alone, they were an echo of what was happening to Elsa. Heart in his throat, the former captain looked at her more closely, memorizing everything he could see that was wrong with the first Frost Born. When her image flickered like a candle in the wind, he lurched towards her, his hand outstretched as if to stop her.

"No no no, if you fade what happens to Elsa!?"

_Go…to…her…_

"How?! I can't get down from here!"

Saja's image was fading rapidly as she pointed to a far off corner. Revel didn't see anything, but that didn't mean there wasn't something there. Leaving Saja, he stumbled to the corner and searched for what the Frost Born had indicated, finding it on his second try. A wide gap between the floor and the ceiling must have formed after the castle shifted last—it would have been invisible to him unless he knew where to look. Whatever was beyond the crack was cloaked in a grayish-purple shadow, but there was definitely space beyond. Glancing over his shoulder, Revel wasn't surprised to find the Frost Born gone, which only fueled his need to get to Elsa as fast as possible. So on his stomach, arm over arm, he crawled through the gap that suddenly sloped downward at a sharp angle, causing him to slide. Frantically, he groped for something to grab onto in order to stop his descent and managed to dig his aching fingers into a fissure, pulling himself to a stop seconds before he careened off the edge of the ice jetty and fall into empty space below.

Clinging with just his fingers, Revel hung suspended for a breathless moment, desperately trying to get his bearings. He managed to pull the small dagger from his boot and jammed it into another crack nearby, anchoring himself in two places that provided him enough leverage to haul himself back up the slope. Inch by inch he climbed, muscles quivering and shoulders burning. It took a few moments for him to safely make it to a place where he could turn himself around and survey the cavern behind him. Ice was nearly impossible to climb at the best of times, and he hardly had the proper equipment for rappelling, so it was a solid miracle Revel was able to jam his spiked boots into the ice and wedge himself into a position where he could see where he was and what was under him.

The chamber beyond, if he could even call it that, seemed to be some type of support shaft that ran from the base of the castle to the top in a single, flawless cylinder. But flawless was hardly how he'd describe it now. Due to the castle's lean, much the of shaft, which he estimated to be possibly fifteen feet wide in any direction, was pitted with juts and small ledges almost all the way to the ground floor. Holes in the walls provided a breach for the wind to slip through, causing different, and at times, erratic notes to drift through the cylinder like it were a massive flute. The shaft was still alive with fiery pinks and reds as the ice continued to reflect the sun, providing Revel with the light he needed in order to judge where he should jump next. Yes, that was his only option, and he hated it. The nearest ledge was about five feet down to his right and wide enough for him to land safely so long as he didn't slide his feet. If he slipped it was a three story fall bouncing off of jagged teeth of ice all the way to the bottom.

"One ledge at a time," he whispered to himself, pulling his dagger free of the ice and clutching it in his numb hand. "Use your boots and knife. Don't rush. Rush and you're dead."

Releasing his grip, he slid the rest of the way down the slope and pushed off at the very end, propelling himself into space. His accuracy was sound and he landed with both feet on the ledge, arms out for balance. Letting out his held breath, the former captain turned slowly and looked over the edge for where his next leap would take him. It was hard to judge where the third floor began, or if he was even going to be able to make it into the third floor. The shaft was broken in places, but that's didn't mean the holes would take him to where Elsa was.

_Saja said to go here, so there must be a way in._

The next ledge was easier to get to, perhaps three feet from him, but half the size of the one he was currently standing on. Taking another breath, Revel jumped and landed one legged, the other thrown out for balance along with the rest of his extremities. He would have taken a second to congratulate himself had the castle not shuddered again, a crack snaking his way and sending large chunks of ice from the top of the castle skittering down the shaft, bounding as they went. Body pressed against the wall, Revel squeezed his eyes shut and prayed the ice passed him by. Apparently, as remarkable as it was, his luck held out for the moment. The slab thundered past him, taking the ledge he'd first landed on and three more under him before rattling to the ground some sixty feet below.

"God's balls," he breathed, opening his eye, "that was clo—"

Luck was a fickle bitch.

The ledge under him gave way with a sharp pop, taking Revel with it. Desperately, he plunged his dagger into the crack that had brought down the ceiling slab, boots and hands scrambling to find a hold before it was too late. The knife caught in a shallow groove, halting his fall momentarily, but the metal was far too brittle due to the cold and snapped. Instinct took over, and Revel kicked off the wall, shoving himself backwards in the hopes he'd hit a ledge and snag on it. Something hard and round slammed into his armpit and he latched on, his fall ending with an abrupt jerk even as he began to lose his grip. Thunder filled the cylinder as more ice rattled free above, chunks raining down around him like lethal rain. Swinging around so that his back was to the chamber and his front was facing the wall, Revel clung to the fang of ice as debris continued to fall. He chanced a glance over his shoulder and caught what he thought was a flickering reflection of—something— in the ice. Whether it was him or Saja he didn't know, but right at this moment half the ceiling above shook free and began falling towards him, taking the shaft and everything in its path with it. Unsure if this was instinct or just plain desperation, the former captain gathered his feet under him and pushed off as hard as he could. Tucking his head into his chest, Revel's shoulders connected with the shaft behind him, and for a single, terrifying moment he felt resistance and feared he'd made the wrong choice. Then the wall splintered and broke like an egg shell, allowing him to crash through a half second before the ceiling crag thundered past, sheering off a chunk of the shaft where Revel had hung.

Panting on his back, he flipped into his stomach and pulled himself up. Little stabs of pain alerted him to the shards of ice imbedded in his skin, but it was nothing compared to the pain in his hands. Scrambling along the ice as he fell had cut his palms as if he'd been attempting to grab broken glass. His left palm was the worst, three of his fingers sliced to bits. Hissing, he tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and wound it around his hand that was the worse off. It would hold until he could find something better. Taking a moment to figure out where he was, Revel realized he was standing in a small antechamber with two hallways that branched out to the left and right. The wall before him was opaque and shifted between shimmering blue and pink depending on which direction he leaned. Stepping closer to the wall, he put out a hand to touch the glowing ice but stopped when he heard someone speak.

"Unlike you, your sister won't put up a fight, and who knows, maybe I'll even let her experience the potency of a _real_ man," Revel heard a familiar, unwelcome voice say with breathless glee that put his teeth on edge and pulse in his ears. "Hmm? Fuck her bloody then slit her throat. A fitting end to the last Arendelle royal."

Revel's anger flared hot and unchecked. Fritz was speaking to someone, and the former captain could tell he was absolutely enjoying himself. The only solace he could take away from what he was hearing was that Elsa appeared to still be alive. But Fritz wasn't just threatening her; he was threatening the entire Frosberg line. If Lastasha was any indication of what the champion was capable of, he had no problem believing Fritz would do exactly what he was describing to Anna. Ten years he'd protected them from monsters like the champion, and he wasn't about to let the bastard leave this castle alive.

Choosing the left hallway at random, Revel crept as quietly as he could behind the walls of the third floor chamber, searching for a way in. Half way around, he found the hallway collapsed into itself and had to double back, but not before he heard what sounded like someone spitting. He didn't know why it slowed his pace, but the wordless cry accompanied by someone gagging pulled him to a frozen standstill. The cry had been from Elsa and it sounded beyond the point of agony. Heart slamming in his throat, Revel raced back the way he'd come and headed down the right hallway. He could still hear someone choking, but it didn't sound like a woman, which was both relieving and unsettling. Frantic to find a way in, he heard something fall to the floor and thrash around a little before things eventually went still and silence fell once again. The right hallway seemed less damaged than the left, and within seconds Revel found a crack wide enough he could squeeze through. He was about to do just that when he heard the absolute last thing this already fatal situation needed.

"No," Adrek breathed, his voice barely above a shocked whisper. Then more loudly, "Oh god, Fritz, _no!_"

_No, Elsa run!_ Revel mentally screamed as he watched Adrek sink to his knees beside the body of his lover, hands shaking as he reached for him. Elsa was no more than twelve feet from him, locked in place like a deer caught in the sights of a hunter.

"No no no Fritz, _please no_!" Adrek cried, every inch of him unsure or unable to process what he was seeing. "You bitch," he heaved, tears in his voice, desolation breaking over him, "this wasn't supposed to happen."

Elsa didn't reply, and from Revel's vantage point slightly behind where Adrek sat hunched over Fritz's body, he could tell she was in a bad way. Blood soaked most of her left side starting from above her hip and stopping just below her knee. The front of her shirt was stained as well, drops of crimson sliding off her chin from where it oozed from her nostrils. She stood braced against a jut of ice, barely standing, her head lifted just level enough to see Adrek….only her eyes weren't open. Most of her face was covered in an orange-red powder Revel instantly recognized as pepper powder.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Adrek kept repeating. "Why didn't you just let me have Revel? This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Adrek, I…" Elsa attempted to say more but began to sag. She shook her head and pulled herself back up with a rattling gasp. "I didn't want this—"

"I'll kill you," Revel heard him whisper, and apparently Elsa did too because she stiffened. "_I kill you!_"

Revel, half way through the crack in the wall, watched in muted horror as Adrek pulled a small crossbow, an alley piece meant to be wielded one handed, from his belt and leveled it on the queen.

* * *

><p>She'd seen him enter through the ripples of light that raced away from him as he moved, illuminating Adrek and a small portion of the destroyed chamber in a hazy silhouette. Of course he'd seen his dead lover first, his eyes drawn to the body as if by magnets, and sank to his knees next to the glowing corpse of the Asham champion. The king of Asham's anguished cries echoed throughout chamber, pulling at Elsa's heart despite the fact that this was the same man who had ordered her assassination. She'd not meant to kill Fritz. It had never been her intention to end his life, but he'd left her no choice. It was either him or her, and Elsa wasn't about to let a monster like that roam free and unchecked throughout her kingdom. She wasn't about to let him touch her sister or unborn children. So Elsa had unconsciously done the one thing that would make certain Fritz never again hurt another living soul, but in the same stroke she'd ripped the only man Adrek had ever loved from him. That's what put a lump in her throat and pulled tears into her eyes. She knew, if the roles were reversed and that was Revel lying dead on the floor, she'd feel the same crushing agony as Adrek was feeling. And yes, she might even have the capacity to kill again in her anger and pain. So it was no surprise when Adrek screamed that her life was now forfeit…that he was going to kill her, but that didn't mean she was going to go willingly. Numb as she was, she'd fight back until her last breath, even if her magic was slowly starting to fade along with her consciousness.<p>

Elsa visibly stiffened when she heard the click of a crossbow being cocked, heart falling through her stomach. Suddenly, she was back in the chamber three years ago with the Weselton brothers, poised to strike but unsure if she had the ability to stop a bolt like that again. Especially at such close range. And there was the chance that if she speared Adrek with ice his finger would slip on the trigger and shoot her anyway. The first time she'd caught an arrow had been sheer luck, and Elsa doubted she had any more luck on her side.

Adrek rose and she readied what little of her magic she could summon, teeth gritted against the pain. She knew where he was standing, and prepared her own type of trigger should the bolt find its way into her body. One way or another, if she were to die Adrek wasn't leaving the castle either.

"All I wanted was to be happy!" Adrek screamed, rage and sorrow and world-shattering suffering twisting his features into something ghastly. "And at every turn someone has taken that away from me! My father, Lastasha, now _you_. I just wanted to live with Fritz and be at peace, but the world is a dark, cruel place where only those who become monsters can survive and thrive. Well, ice bitch, you've made a monster out of me."

"You already were one," Elsa spat, unable to hold her tongue. "I just pulled off your mask so the whole world could see who you really are."

It was the wrong thing to say and do. Goading the man holding a crossbow aimed at her chest was the last thing that she should have done, but Elsa was beyond the point of finished with all of this. She was done with trying to be diplomatic, with being the servile queen, with being the weak woman these men thought she was. Fate had planted her here, but that didn't mean she had to stare death in the face and cower with fear.

_Let them know I stood my ground and fought till my last breath._

Adrek took another step forward, multi-colored ripples painting him in faint, almost ethereal light. Despite not being able to see anything from his waist up due to the fact it was in silhouetted shadow, Elsa knew his arm was raised and that his finger was tightening on the trigger. Anticipation hung thick in the air, the only sound coming from Adrek as he heave in breath after breath and the crackle of her dying palace. It was a standoff, one waiting for the other to move, but it lasted only a few more heartbeats until Adrek took a sharp breath and pulled the trigger.

Time suddenly stood still. Elsa heard the telltale snap of the crossbow's catch releasing seconds after she saw a flood of ripples erupt from somewhere to her left and race towards her. It was the ripple of movement that caught her attention, the ice echoing the footfalls of someone approaching fast from the queen's left. In her seismic half-vision, Elsa realized what was happening but couldn't move fast enough to stop it in time…to stop _him_ in time. Revel threw himself in front of her, right hand throw back to shove her away from danger. She heard the unmistakable sound of a bolt sinking into flesh and the pained exhale of mortal damage done. Revel stumbled back into her with the force of the blow, and she caught him as he sagged. Words escaped her. She couldn't even bring herself to scream. Her only functioning arm crossed over his chest, her fingers brushing the place where the bolt had imbedded just over his heart, and it was at that moment, as he slid from her weak grip without a sound, that Elsa felt the true meaning of pain. Her world shattered into billions of pieces at the same moment her heart fell through her stomach and made a home for itself at the center of the earth.

"So, this is where you chose to make your final stand, _brother_," Adrek hissed, his voice raw with hatred. Elsa felt him approaching but was to overcome with shock and denial to move away. A pair of vicelike hands snaked around her throat, pressing her back against the ice, and squeezed.

"It's only fitting I take something from you, Snow Queen, just like you took Fritz from me," Adrek seethed, tightening his grip and making her gag. "And you would have lived had you just listened to me."

Right hand pulling desperately at his, Elsa fought to breath but couldn't drag any air into her lungs around Adrek's hold. She felt tears sting her eyes the tighter he squeezed, washing more of the powder away. Ice swirled and snapped around them, her magic leaking from her in a frantic rush as she slowly suffocated. Cracking her eyes open for the first time in what seemed like hours, Elsa squinted at Adrek's hazy image, glaring at him through the pain and dizziness overtaking her. He ground his teeth and pressed harder, crushing her throat with a savage snarl. Slowly, the room began to spin as lack of air took agonizing effect. Elsa could still see in both her seismic and normal sight, and the combination of the two colliding was breathtaking. Ripples glimmered and shone in the soft light of dawn, intertwining with the gentle glow of her ice like moving water breaking around stones. The chamber before her was in shambles, but it still held an unearthly beauty as ice turned to fire in the light of dawn, different colors flashing within the translucent wonder.

_My home,_ she thought sluggishly, _what have I done to you?_

Again, movement caught her dimming attention and drew her hazy eyes to the entrance of the chamber. She saw him but didn't recognize him at first, mind almost too far gone to recall who the figure was. Then it came back to her in a rush and a small smile pulled at her lips. It had been so long.

_Papa,_ she whispered and reached for him.

King Agdar smiled at his daughter and Elsa felt her chest warm with a special glow of love she'd not felt in years. She and her father had always been close, the king her confidant and protector until the sea claimed him and his wife too early. Still, how many years had it been since she'd seen that summer-warm smile spread across his face? How many years had it been since she felt the glow of his love? He looked just like he had the day he and Queen Idun had departed for Corona almost seven years ago. His navy blue jacket and pants were the same; the medallions pinned to the fabric were exactly where they should be. His hair was combed to the side in his customary fashion and his eyes danced in the light of dawn like gems.

_Daughter, how you've grown,_ he said, his voice low and soothing.

_I've missed you,_ Elsa smiled, tears spilling down her face as the room continued to dim. She could faintly hear her heartbeat in her ears, the tempo slowing like a dying waltz.

_Your mother and I have missed you, _Agdar smiled. _You and your sister both. We've watched you these long years, and we're proud of the women you've become._

_ I'm ready to see you and Mamma again._

Agdar's image shimmered and began to fade like fog burning away under rays of sunlight, but his kind smile was still clear as ever. _It's not your time, Elsa, but we will see you again someday._

Suddenly, her father was gone, filtering away like dust in the wind, and a panting Kristoff stood in his place. He took one cautious look around, saw Elsa pinned against a jut of ice with Adrek's hands around her throat, drew his longbow and sighted down the already notched arrow. That's when two things happened almost simultaneously with almost practiced precision when it was only a matter of dumb luck. Adrek, preoccupied with choking the life out of Elsa, didn't feel Revel shift at his feet until the former captain sprang to life with a shout and buried Fritz's shattered cutlass in his side. The king of Asham roared and half turned, releasing Elsa who crumpled senselessly to the ground with a ragged gasp. The shock on Adrek's face was outdone by the rage on Revel's as he twisted the shattered blade deeper.

"That's for her and Father," Revel seethed, blood drenching his right hand.

Adrek opened his mouth to say something, eyes bulging with confusion and pain, but jerked upright, a startled cry rolling past his lips. He had enough time to claw his hands towards his chest before he tipped forward, slipping silently to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut, Kristoff's arrow protruding from his chest.

Revel scrambled around and saw the mountain man slowly lowering his bow, face grim, mouth pressed in a hard line. It was the look of a man who knew he'd just snuffed out a life but had no choice in the matter. Hundreds of questions scrambled in Revel's mind, but he pushed them aside for the most important thing right now. Rising to his knees, he pulled Adrek's corpse away from where it had fallen atop Elsa, sliding it away with a scowl. If he had once had any love for his brother he'd buried it long ago. This was just the husk that remained, the soulless sack of flesh and blood. Though something did cause him to pause as his brother's body slid to a stop next to Fritz. Adrek lay on his side, blank eyes staring at nothing, but his left hand had somehow landed atop Fritz's, and Revel distantly thought that was fitting.

_You got your wish, brother. You two are together for eternity at last. I hope you can finally find peace._

Then he turned away, the matter closed for the rest of time. He gently pulled Elsa towards him, mindful of her injuries and the few he knew he couldn't see. She'd crumpled onto her stomach, providing him with a view of the second vicious gash running the length of her spine from hip to shoulder. Dark crimson soaked her tattered fencer's top, the fabric held in place by her blood alone. Revel swallowed hard, forcing himself to become to efficient guard captain and not the frantic lover. He had to remain calm for her sake, but that was easier said than done. There was too much blood and she was far to still.

"Elsa," he called, placing a cool hand against her cheek, and frowned. She seemed warmer than normal. "Elsa come on; open your eyes." When she didn't respond he shifted her onto her right side and realized by the set of her left shoulder that it was dislocated. Moving on instinct, he grabbed the unnatural bulge and shoved hard, cracking it back in place. The queen came awake with a raw scream that trailed off into a weak whimper.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that was the worst," Revel assured her soothingly, scooting under her so that her head was resting against his thigh. He saw her watching him with confused, heavily lidded eyes and forced a smile, fingers tracing lightly down her jaw. "Hey, there you are."

"You're…dead," she rasped weakly, and Revel couldn't help but notice a blue tint to her lips.

"I'm very much alive. It just knocked the wind out of me," he reassured gently.

"Arrow…s-still—"

"I'm fine, Elsa. I promise. And you're going to be too," he said, lifting her hand and kissing her palm.

She half-smiled and chuckled faintly, "Liar," then she was gone, eyes sliding shut and body going limp.

Revel felt his body go cold, heart skipping a beat. "No no no, stay awake. You have to stay awake. Elsa?" He gently shook her, patting her cheek, but she didn't stir. "Elsa!?" His fingers flew to her steadily bruising throat and pressed into the skin just under her jaw. After a terrifying moment he caught the faintest flutter of a pulse but couldn't find it in him to breathe a sigh of relief. He needed to get her medical attention and none of that could be found here in the mountains. Standing, he scooped her into his arms and turned to meet a concerned Kristoff as he jogged forward.

"Is she alri—"

Kristoff pulled to an abrupt halt, his eyes growing as big as dinner plates as he took at the two of them. For a moment the former caption through he was solely looking at the broken body of the queen cradled in his arms, but Revel quickly realized he was staring at something on his chest. Brow scrunched with confusion, he looked down and almost dropped her. The bolt that had hit him, the one he was sure had killed him but had apparently missed or ricocheted or—something— was still lodged in his chest.

"I…um…well that's certainly different," Revel stammered, too shocked to come up with something witty to say. "I actually think I'm okay." He didn't sound at all confident in his declaration despite only feeling a little cold.

"Maybe you should…let me have her?" Kristoff ventured, stepping forward with his arms out when suddenly the floor under him fell three feet with a massive crack, startling both men.

"No time! We need to get out of here!"

"Follow me!" Kristoff shouted as large chunks of the walls around them began to fracture and fall to the floor. Revel glimpsed a stunned Sigmund as they raced towards the entrance where Kristoff had appeared. The big guard saw the queen in Revel's arms and his face paled considerably.

"Captain, is the queen—"

"She's still alive, but only just," Revel answered quickly, raising his voice above the roar of falling ice. "We need to get her out of here."

Before he could turn away, the big guard took his arm and stopped him. "I never doubted for a moment, sir," he said, leaning in. "You're my captain regardless of whatever fancy title you now have."

Revel felt warmth bloom in his chest and smiled at Sigmund before the big guard turned on his heels and motioned for him to pass.

"This way, sir!" he shouted, taking up the rear of the party as they descended the long single staircase leading to the second and ground floor that was remarkably still intact. The great hall was an uneven mess made all the more dangerous by falling debris. Kristoff led them around the juts of ice in the center of the floor that looked like massive fingers reaching out for the second level, careful to avoid the boulders of ice that crashed around them. Revel noticed the double doors of the palace were gone, bright light spilling through the opening along with gusts of bitter wind. Before they stepped through, the former captain saw the rucksack he'd ridden up here with laying a little ways away and called Sigmund to fetch it. The big guard did without a word, dodging falling fangs of ice with practiced ease.

"Is the bridge still intact?" Revel shouted to Kristoff.

"It was when we entered," the mountain man replied. He braced himself against the wall as the castle shook again, this time half the floor behind them falling away, revealing the bones of the mountain underneath. Leaning around the corner, he squinted into the bright light of dawn and breathed a sigh of relief that the bridge was still there.

"Come on, this place isn't going to hold much longer. Go in front of me!" Kristoff pushed Revel ahead of him with a forceful shove, waving for Sigmund to hurry. The former captain raced out into the bitter cold and blowing snow and spotted Anna and another guard, Sebastian by the look of it, standing by a sled. The princess rushed forward when she saw him emerge, and even at a distance, with the roar of the crumbling castle behind him, Revel could hear her screaming her sister's name. Taking the stairs as fast as he could, he landed on the plateau seconds before one of the spires atop the castle broke free and crashed to earth, smashing through the bridge with enough force to shake the area. Revel spun and saw Sigmund catch Kristoff before he slid over the edge, the two men now stranded in the doorway.

"Take her!" he commanded Sebastian, who jumped into action, and raced back towards the castle. "Kristoff, you have to jump!"

"I know that!" he shouted back. Sigmund had unwound the rope slung across his chest and handed one end to the mountain man before securing his end around his waist. Kristoff untied the pick he always carried on his belt while traveling in the mountains, hefting it in his right hand.

"We go on three," Kristoff said, and Sigmund nodded. "One, two, three!"

Both men raced for the edge and jumped, arms pinwheeling as they flew through open space. Kristoff caught the edge of the shattered staircase, jamming his pick into the ice while his other hand sought and found a handhold on one of the stairs. His landing was hard and jarring, but he maintained his grip, years of mountain living conditioning him for daredevil stunts like this. Sigmund had jumped a little to the right and managed to grab ahold of the raw cliff face, digging his fingers and elbow into the snow and attempting to haul himself up. His landing had been a little less impressive than Kristoff's, limbs scrambling for purchase, but he'd eventually found a handhold and clung to it. But the ledge under him was steep and sloped inward at a sharp angle, meaning his feet had no anchor to grip or push off of. Despite the tension of the rope around his waist, the big guard wasn't able to maintain a grip relying solely on upper body strength and began to slide backwards into the chasm. He would have fallen had Revel not slid to a stop in front of him and grabbed his arm.

"You're getting fat, Sigmund! Come on, pull your gut over the edge!" Revel growled as he heaved the big guard up.

"Bite me, princely boy," Sigmund retorted with a grunt and finally managed to haul himself up. Standing and brushing the snow from his shirt, he was about to clap Revel on the back but stopped when he saw the bolt in his chest. "Christ Revel, what the hell? Is that a crossbow bolt? How are you even standing…or alive for that matter?"

"Later," Revel said with a wave. It wasn't that the bolt in his chest didn't bother him. The former captain was trying desperately to understand why it was there and why he wasn't dead, but ten years of being a guard had taught him a few important things: one being that, if you have a deadly projectile protruding from your body, it's oftentimes safer to leave it in. The bolt, which stuck out only a few inches, wasn't causing him any pain. In fact, he'd never felt better. There wasn't any pinching or loss of breath, he couldn't even feel it in his chest cavity, so Revel counted his meager blessings and pushed it aside for another time. Right now, he needed to focus on Elsa. Shaking his head, he jogged back to where Anna and Sebastian were. The young guard had gone to his knees along with the princess who had ahold of her sister's hand, tears spilling down her face. Kristoff reached her at the same time Revel did, and she looked at the both of them before bursting out into heavy sobs and diving into the arms of her husband.

"Sir," Sebastian said quietly, looking sadly up as Revel neared. He cleared his throat uneasily, aware of the gravity of his next few words. "I don't think we're going to reach the castle in time. The queen she…she's lost too much blood. Her body's going into shock. I'm…I'm sorry, sir."

Revel felt lightheaded as he knelt and took Elsa into his arms. Sebastian was one of his top ranking cadets with a fairly vast knowledge of medicine and medical treatments. He was as good as any physician, so for him to make such a grim prognoses truly meant that the situation had deteriorated beyond the point of salvation. Elsa was dying, and wouldn't make the trip back to her kingdom. Revel could tell she was still bleeding, though the flow had slowed considerably, and that had nothing to do with clotting. For the first time in a long time, the former captain didn't know what to do, and felt a blanket of helplessness descend over him. This wasn't a situation he could fight his way through; there was no way of making it better. This was beyond his reach and the amount of frustration and despair he felt was shattering. His beloved was dying— because of him— because he'd been a coward and ran when he should have stayed by her side, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it. There was no magic left and prayers usually fell on deaf ears. Tears stung his eyes, and he let them fall.

"Sir?" Sigmund asked quietly, his shoulders drooping. "What should we do?"

"I…I don't—"

Revel looked around at the expectant faces and a flood of shame mix with his anguish. Wasn't he the captain of the guard? Hadn't he been for three years? Wasn't he supposed to know what to do in situations like this? The truth was, as a guard he'd know exactly what to do, but as Elsa's lover, he was suddenly at a loss. The crackling roar of the crumbling palace behind him mirrored the breaking taking place within. He was losing himself to despair, something he thought he'd never experience again in his lifetime. Despair and pain and hopelessness so profound it was blacker and deeper than any chasm. Revel would have dropped to his knees had he not been holding the one thing that matter more than his life did, the one thing he'd gladly trade anything for in order to have her whole and healthy again in his arms rather than broken and fading away.

_Get your head together and think! Be the guard captain first and the unsure lover last. She needs you!_

Sheer force of will buoyed him back to the surface, but it was a struggle to keep his head above water. All was not yet lost. He would fight— yes, fight and claw and scratch— to keep her with him. If God wanted her so badly he could pry her out of his bloody fingers. Fiery determination quickly replaced despair, rage fanning the flames, but before Revel could open his mouth, Kristoff snapped his head up, a spark of something new burning in his eyes.

"I know where we can take her," he said with quiet conviction.

Sigmund, Sebastian, and Revel just stared, unsure of what he was talking about. Anna, however, who'd dissolved into tears, looked up at her husband, comprehension lighting her puffy, red-rimmed eyes.

"Do you think he would help?" she asked in a small, quivering voice that hitched every other syllable.

The mountain man put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed, but no reassuring smile touched his lips. "Yes, I do."

"What are you talking about?"

"There isn't time. You all are just going to have to trust me."

There was a moment's hesitation, a fraction of a second, unease and unsureness working through the three men. Revel was the one who nodded first and turned towards the sled. "If it's a chance to save her life, I'll gamble on anything at the moment."

That was enough for the remaining guards. Sigmund found his mount and climbed into the saddle, his horse nickering unhappily as the castle continued to disintegrate. Kristoff unhitched Anna's fjord pony, leaving it for Sigmund or Sebastian or the remaining two guards who kept a polite distance to tie to their saddle, and beckoned Sven over, hitching the bull reindeer to the sled with practiced efficiency.

"You know where we're going buddy?" Sven bugled in response, stamping happily. "Good, take us there as fast as you can. We need to get Elsa help." He helped his wife and Revel into the back of the sled, the queen pressed against the former captain's body as he settled into a sitting position.

"We need to staunch the wound on her side," he told a glassy-eyed Anna as she settled just behind her husband's seat, flushed face almost devoid of expression. She seemed to be in a haze, either unable to comprehend the situation or slow to process it. Anna nodded woodenly as the sled lurched forward with a snap of the reins from Kristoff and look around for something that Revel could use.

"In the rucksack next to you are Kristoff's clothes you had me wear yesterday," he instructed her gently, recognizing the symptoms of shock with a sympathetic pang. "Tear the shirt into strips for me."

She did as instructed, tearing the fabric into long strips with her teeth and handing them to Revel. Using the pants he'd worn as a makeshift patch, he peeled away Elsa's bloody shirt and pressed it against her side, tightly winding the strips around her waist, mindful of the gash on her back. It was deep, but not as lethal as the open wound on her side. His task completed, he turned her so she was facing away from him, her back against his chest. The fabric of his shirt would act as a patch as well, stemming the flow of blood until they could properly close the wound.

Arms encircling her and drawing her close, Revel pressed his lips against the top of her head and squeezed his eyes shut. "You're going to be ok," he whispered. "You're safe now; I've got you, and I'm never letting you go."

As they bounced along, Sven picking his way down the mountain as quickly as he could, Revel settled back against the side of the sled, right arm across her chest to steady her and keep her from jostling around and the left pressed against her side to stop the bleeding. He didn't know why he started humming, but a tune from his childhood sprang to mind and wouldn't leave him in peace until the notes left his body. It was a lullaby his mother had sung to him before she died shortly after Symon's birth, and it had always had the power to calm him even during the worst of times. So he hummed the bars now, Anna watching him from where she sat across the sled in muted silence, puffy eyes dry of tears but fear etched into every inch of her being. The soft swish of the snow runners beneath them and the muffled thumps of Sven's hooves set a gentle tempo that accompanied Revel's humming with a strange, melodic harmony. Here, despite their situation balancing on a knife's blade, the royal family found a measure of peace as the eye of the storm passed overhead. When Sven took a sharp turn and headed into the thin tree line, Elsa's head lolled to the side and caught in the crook of Revel's neck. He smiled thinly at the brush of her cool breath across his skin and closed his eyes, humming and listening to her breathe, feeling her chest rise and fall under his arm. He felt it until he didn't, until her body went still, and the stillness made him go cold. He raised a hand to her face, praying it was just a hitch in her breath but knowing deep within it wasn't. Just as he'd feared, she wasn't breathing.

"Shit!"

"What?" Anna jumped and looked around frantically, face so pale she could have become transparent at any moment.

"She's not breathing," he bit out, shifting around and laying her flat on her back.

"No," Anna whispered, body beginning to shake, fresh tears welling in her eyes. Her hands flew to her mouth, pushing back a sob that nearly doubled her over. "_Please no_…"

"What?!" Kristoff gasped and turned sharply in his seat, eyes wide with fear. He began to pull on Sven's reins, slowing the sled.

"Don't stop," Revel snapped without looking at him. "Keep going! We need to get her to wherever you're taking her."

The mountain man turned quickly back around and snapped the reins hard, shouting for Sven to move as fast as he could. The sled jerked once as the reindeer picked up speed, wind howling in their ears.

Frantically, Revel searched for a pulse in her neck and found none, but that wasn't all he discovered when touching her. Elsa was warm. Not the feverish warm of a body beginning to heal or fend off sickness; this was a subtle warmth devoid of her customary lukewarm temperature. This was a normal warmth— a human warmth— a warmth empty of winter magic that put a flush in her cheeks at the same moment her lips turned blue and the blood stopped seeping into the rag at her side. Elsa was gone and the magic that had kept her temperature below average had disappeared.

Revel took the bloodied collar of her shirt and tore the garment in two, revealing the full extent of her injuries in all their gruesome glory. Anna saw them too and clutched her sister's hand to her chest, hiccupping sobs shaking her small frame. If she felt a temperature difference in the queen she didn't say anything or didn't have the capacity. The former captain expected it to be bad, but the amount of punishment Elsa had taken while at Fritz's mercy had been grossly underestimated. Being fair-skinned meant she bruised easily, and her torso was proof of that. Vicious black bruises, most of them larger than his hand, took up a large portion of her skin from neck to waist, her right side primarily a patchwork of crimson and acrid black as blood pooled under the surface. He could tell at just a glance a few of her ribs were broken, but what caught his attention was the imprint of a boot heel in the center of her chest. It was swollen and discolored with three holes framing a triangle in the center.

_He kicked her with the spikes of his boots,_ Revel realized with a sick twist of his stomach.

Pushing that from his mind, he took up position by her side, years of training flooding back to him and stilling his frenzied mind. Gone was Revel the lover, and in his place was the steely guard captain. Gently, he tilted her head back, pinched her nose closed, pressed his mouth atop hers, and exhaled as hard as he could until her chest expanded. Laying his hands atop one-another, he centered them over the triangular puncture wounds and pressed down sharply five times before breathing again. It was a technique oftentimes used on drowning victims that had a high success rate, and there was rumor it worked on the battlefield when a soldier's heart stopped. Revel had only ever done this once before after fishing a man out of the fjord during his training years, but the technique had stayed with him ever since. Breathe and press, over and over, sweat starting to prickle his brow as he worked. Breathe and press as the sled sped along. Breathe and press as his own heart thundered in his ears. Breathe and press as his vision narrowed to the finite singularity of Elsa alone.

_I love you, _he raged silently, unbidden tears streaking down his face. _And you love me, so don't you dare leave me now. Not when I just got you back!_

He didn't know how long he kept up the rhythm or how many times his lips connected with hers as he pushed air into her lungs entwined with a simple command of _live!_ It could have been a thousand years, and he'd work a thousand more until she returned to him. Lips pressed against hers again, he was about to breathe for her when he felt a wisp of tingling cold half a second before Elsa arched slightly and gasped, dragging in a ragged breath before settling back. Revel and Anna both laughed with ecstatic relief as the queen began to breathe on her own again, the tinge of blue fading from her lips and her skin starting to cool.

"That's it, love. That's it; just keep breathing," Revel whispered with a tearful smile, stroking her cheek with his thumb. Anna sat back, body slowly starting to uncoil, but she wouldn't let go of her sister's hand, and Revel couldn't blame her for it.

They both remained vigilant for the rest of the journey, Revel checking her pulse and breathing every few seconds. Anna was out of her depth and knew it, so she offered support where she could, stroking her sister's hand or humming softly. Elsa remained unconscious, skin still far too waxy and warm and breathing too shallow, but at least her condition was stable, and that was a blessing Revel would never take for granted. Seated next to her, the former captain always had a hand somewhere on her body, fearful that if his touch disconnected for even a moment it would sever some type of lifeline and he'd lose her again. With the crisis averted for the moment, he allowed himself a chance to look around and gauge his surroundings, trying to decipher where in the mountains Sven and Kristoff were taking them. They'd descended to the base of the craggy cliffs of dark stone— or very well near them— where lush pines groves, speckled with large boulders of fallen rock, grew in rich black soil and the temperature evened out to a livable degree. The rich perfume of earth and sharp tang of frost and pine sap hung in the air the deeper into the forest they plunged; the steadily rising sun dappling the snowy forest floor with patches of gold and silver that shifted and flickered as the branches moved at the behest of a gentle wind. As far as Revel could tell, there was nothing significant about this particular stretch of forest aside from the fact that some of the snow-dusted boulders they passed had strange circular markings on them.

_Relics of a different age,_ he thought idly, tracking them with his eyes.

But there was something else under the surface of calm tranquility he couldn't quite grasp, something strange and incomprehensible that niggled at him. Wrapped within the silence there was a low hum that vibrated at the base of his skull and made his chest tingle. Revel couldn't put his finger on what it was. It was nothing he could hear with his ears even if he strained and concentrated beyond the sound of Sven's steps, the swish of the sled across the ground, and the snort of the horses behind him. Whatever the hum was it remained veiled from his five senses while plucking at his sixth. It wasn't until Sven took another sharp turn at a nondescript rock formation that the humming grew into a buzz that fluttered under his skin and set his teeth on edge. The horses Sigmund and his men were ridding snorted uneasily, ears swiveling and nostrils flaring.

Watching over Kristoff's shoulder, Revel could see he had turned the sled back towards the mountain base, walls of snow-dusted stone rising out of the earth. The trees began to thin and shrink back from the path; crags, cliffs and massive, rounded boulders replacing the green flora the farther they went. Higher and higher the rocks climbed, a kingdom of stone that threatened to swallow the sky. They were passing through a corridor of living rock, and just ahead the path opened into a shallow crescent valley rimmed with boulders and the sporadic, withered tree. Kristoff pulled sharply on Sven's reins, halting the beast, before jumping out of his seat and moving to the back of the sled.

"Where are we?" Revel inquired, glancing up at the tall faces of stone and realizing for the first time one of the things that had bothered him about his particular stretch of wilderness. There were no sounds despite the faraway hissing of volcanic steam pockets. No birds chirped, no insects buzzed, and even the wind seemed muted. It was like a blanket of reticence had been pulled over the valley, nature itself holding its breath in the presence of a terribly old, omnipotent power. And despite it being much warmer here because of the steam, the former captain felt a chill run the length of his spine as if hundreds of unseen eyes were watching him.

Kristoff ignored Revel's questions and helped his wife from the sled, his face tight with an anxious kind of fear. He leaned down and whispered something into Anna's ear, and the princess nodded gravely. The sudden severity in both their faces caused the anxiety in Revel's stomach to boil, and he watched with coiling apprehension as the princess slowly walked back towards where Sigmund and the rest of his guards had reined up. The former captain couldn't hear what was being said, but judging from the stricken and confused look on Sigmund's face it wasn't anything good. The big guard seemed to press an issue, but Anna was having none of it. Even at a distance, Revel could see a regal tightening of her shoulders and knew she was giving the big guard a command he couldn't not argue with. Kristoff walked past the sled, and Revel grabbed the mountain man's arm.

"What's going on?" he asked nervously, watching Anna and Sigmund out of the corner of his eye. "What's Anna telling them?"

Kristoff gave him a piercing look, blue eyes suddenly hard as ice chips. Revel couldn't help but feel as if he were being weighed and measured by the mountain man, his very person put on a scale in order to discover whether or not he was worthy of some unspoken knowledge. It wasn't a feeling the former captain appreciated, and he tightened his grip, reminding the princess's husband that he was in no mood for games.

"Anna's telling the guards this is as far as they go," Kristoff said evenly.

"We have need of them," Revel countered, brow scrunched in a frown.

"Not here we don't," he said, looking down the long corridor. "They are not permitted any further."

"By whose authority?" the former captain growled.

"My family's." Kristoff jerked his arm away and went around to unhitch Sven. The bull reindeer seemed impervious to the sudden somber mood-swing and bugled happily, prancing around and grunting as Anna returned and took her place by her husband's side.

"They'll wait here, but they're not happy about it."

"You know how he is," Kristoff said, planting a kiss atop her head. "If he knew we'd brought outsiders into his home, I'd never hear the end of it."

"Who are the two of you talking about?"

Anna gave Revel a thin smile, and he could clearly see the lines of stress on her face and the bags under her haunted eyes. The princess had aged considerably under the weight of stress, still strikingly beautiful, but older somehow and more reserved than usual. Revel briefly wondered how much more her heavily pregnant body could take and felt another pang of guilt shoot through him. So much had happened and so many people had been hurt because of his mistakes.

"You'll see soon enough. Follow us," Anna said, taking her husband's hand.

Revel gently lifted Elsa out of the back of the sled and fell into step behind the royal couple, aware of the tingling in his chest and the buzzing between his shoulder blades. He knew they were being watched, but who or what was out there he couldn't possibly fathom. There was a strange energy to this place that made him nervous while in the same stroke piqued his curiosity. What was so special about this place that Anna and Kristoff would gamble the queen's life rather than taking her to a proper physician? What secret did they share between them? His questions were eventually answered but not in any fashion he expected. The four of them, Sven bouncing along beside Kristoff, emerged from the corridor and stepped into a multi-tiered bowl of dark stone and moss littered with round, mossy bounders of varying size. Sven bounded up to one and began sniffing it, grunting happily and nudging it with his nose.

Kristoff stepped into the center of the rock strew crescent and stamped his feet, shouting, "Everyone wake up! Up up up! I need Pabbie here now; it's an emergency!"

"Please," Anna implored, kneeling as best she could next to a lumpy rock covered in mushrooms, "my sister needs your help."

Revel pulled up short, a wave of confusion crashing into him with enough force to cement his boots to the ground. What the hell was going on? He watched the two shift from rock to rock, patting them gently and urging them to wake up. Very quickly, his confusion flipped and turned red, anger churned in his chest.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" he demanded, shooting the both of them dark looks.

"Does it look like we're joking," Kristoff countered, frowning. Turning back to the stones he shouted again for them to wake up which only fueled Revel's indignant anger.

"It looks like you're talking to rocks! How is this going to help Elsa?" he rumbled, body starting to quiver as his anxiety ramped up a notch.

"Please, trust us," Anna pressed, seeing the hurt and despair returning to the former captain's eyes.

"_Trust you?_" He sputtered, his body practically vibrating with rage. He'd gone against his better judgment, against his instincts, entrusting Elsa's safety in the hopes that Kristoff and Anna would know somewhere they could take the queen to get her immediate help while on the side of a mountain. But apparently they didn't grasp the severity of the situation because here they were standing in the middle of a rock-forest, shouting at stones to wake up as if they were living things. "I did trust you! You said we could get her help, but you're just shouting at rocks! Do you two think this is some kind of game? Elsa's dying and needs _real_ help!"

"We are getting her real help," Anna snapped, face coloring. "Just be patient."

"There's nothing here!" he bellowed, combatting the urge to turn back and head for the sled. "We're in a rock quarry!"

"Hey!" Kristoff shouted, face darkening. He stomped over to Revel, finger pointed at his chest. "We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you. Elsa wouldn't be clinging to life right now if you'd not been such a coward and told her the truth in the beginning. So you can damn well listen to what my wife's saying and be patient. It's just takes them a little time to wake up."

Revel glared at the mountain man, so many scalding words jockeying for a place on his tongue. "You're insane. The both of you. I'm going back to the sled and taking her to the castle."

Kristoff stepped closer, looming over the former captain with impressive height and exuding intimidation. "You'll stay, or I'll take her from you."

Revel saw the challenge in the big man's eyes and met it head on. "You touch her and I'll make sure you lose that hand."

Sparks leapt between them, hot and dangerous. Anna picked her way towards them, fearing that at any moment they'd come to blows despite the fact that Revel cradled Elsa in his arms. She couldn't deal with this right now, not when her sister's life hung by such a slender thread. The stress was becoming too much to bear. But apparently she wasn't the only one who'd heard the confrontation.

"Kristoff, what have I told you about fighting and at home no less!"

Mountain man and former captain both looked down and froze but for very different reasons. Kristoff took a step back and scratched the side of his neck nervously, eyes averted, a line of pink stretching across the bridge of his nose and coloring his ears.

"Sorry, Ma," he mumbled, his demeanor shifting from intimidating to almost shy in the blink of an eye.

_Ma?_ Revel thought looking down at the little creature. _As in…mother?_

He felt his mouth fall open as he stared at the strange thing that barely reached the top of his knees. She, if he could call it a she, was a rotund little thing with large, almost comical ears, granite-like skin, and tufts of grass-like hair dusted in dandelion seeds bouncing atop her head. The moss covering her tiny body was a soft, emerald green, reaching halfway down her stubby arms and nearly covering her large feet. A set of gently glowing jewels hung around her neck and tinkled against one another as she wagged a stubby finger at Kristoff in an eerily, motherly fashion.

"And such language! I raised you better than that!"

"I know Ma, I'm sorry."

"You're mother's a rock…" Revel mumbled in stunned disbelief. A rock…why not? He loved a woman who could create ice castles, so why couldn't rocks suddenly spring to life and talk like a human.

"She's not a rock; she's a troll, and her name is Bulda," the mountain man corrected acridly.

Rumbling filled the little valley as the once dormant stones shifted and uncurled, revealing more stumpy trolls. Suddenly the crescent was choked with little rock people, all muttering and mumbling at the same time as they looked around and leveled dark eyes on the humans' in their midst. For the most part they were all round of face and feature, every part of them smooth and blunted like stones that had weathered much over their lifetime. A large majority of the congregation was covered in mossy clothing and sported different growths like mushrooms and various herbs and flowers. Some had more crystals than others; some had more flowers, while some had more hair. It appeared this was a diverse little clan, though Revel had never had anything to compare it to. A few were tiny, half the size of the troll standing in front of him, suggesting they were somehow adolescents. Those adolescent trolls seemed bolder than the older ones, some approaching Revel without fear and poking him or staring up with wide eyes while the others gleefully rolled over to Sven and Anna.

"You look funny," one said, tugging on Revel's pants leg, a mushroom growing on his shoulder. "How come you're not as big as Kristoff?"

"Why are you holding Elsa? Is she asleep?" another intoned, a single pink gem around her neck.

"She smells like iron." Mushroom-shoulder said sniffing and shook his head, making a face. "The bad kind of iron."

"What's all that red stuff?" a third piped, squinting at the bloody rag tied to her side and her torn and soiled clothing.

"It's blood, rockbrain," Mushroom-shoulder admonished with a shove.

"Isn't it supposed to be inside her?"

"She looks dead," a fourth frowned up at a stunned and mute Revel. "Why'd you kill her? She's the queen," it said matter-of-factly.

It was unclear whether or not the mention of blood or death caught Bulda's attention, but she snapped around regardless and seemed to realize there was another human in the clearing and he was holding a gravely injured Queen of Arendelle. For a frozen moment she just stared, something unreadable flashing across her face. It could have been nervous unease or perplexity, but something in her dark, ageless eyes made Revel shift uncomfortably. He felt a heaviness blanket the area the longer he stared at her, tension thick in the charged air. It was as if the troll-mother were torn between doing something she might regret; fighting against a base instinct no human could possibly understand. The buzzing in his chest returned, muscles quivering under his skin, and he clenched his jaw in an effort to keep the sensation from spreading into his neck. But the tension eventually broke and whatever dark confliction Revel had seen abated quickly, concern twisting the troll-mother's round face as she stepped closer for a better look at Elsa.

"By the gods," she gasped breathlessly, focusing on the blood and bruises cover the queen's fair skin, "the poor dear! Here, here, bring her over here. Move aside, all of you." Bulda motioned for Revel to follow and pushed her way through the throngs of nervously gawking onlookers to a bear spot off to the side of the crescent that had been swept clear of debris and packed down. Most of the trolls kept their distance, looking to Bulda for how they should react towards the outsider in their midst. The former captain heard the troll-mother mumble something incoherent under her breath seconds before twisting fingers of moss rose out of the ground and knotted into a soft bed. "Set her down. Gently, now, gently."

"Can you help her?" he asked, laying Elsa on her right side and moving her disheveled hair off her shoulder and neck so as to not hide any of her injuries from her would-be healers. He winced when he saw the finger marks around her throat and suppressed a snarl.

"I…" Bulda began, circling around in front of the queen and kneeling down. She didn't touch her, not yet, merely looked at her broken state with obvious shock in her eyes. "What happened to her?"

"He did," Kristoff mumbled a little louder than necessary. His rock-mother twisted around to look at him, clearly upset by his answer. Anna, who was standing next to him, smacked her husband hard on the arm and scowled.

"No, he didn't. It wasn't his fault."

"What wasn't his fault, Anna-dear?" Bulda pressed.

"No, this is my fault," Revel sighed sadly, slumping to the ground. He was aware there were at least a dozen eyes on him, and some were none to friendly. "She was trying to protect me. I ran to the ice castle after I was—"

"Please," Bulda interrupted softly, holding up a granite hand to forestall him. "I'd like to hear this account from my son and Anna-dear. You are an Outsider. You're words mean little here."

She'd said it with quiet gentleness, but Revel still felt a flush of embarrassment rise into his cheeks at her rebuke. Outsider…it had been a long time since he'd worn that threadbare name, yet it still packed a painful sting that could put a wasp to shame. Outsider, untrustworthy, unseen and uncared for; yes, he knew what it meant to be cast out and alone, and those memories flooded his mind as he sat in helpless silence as yet another person spoke for his actions and painted him the villain. Well, only one person seemed to think this was his doing, and that was Kristoff. Anna, however, didn't seem to be in the same mindset as her husband.

"No, you both are wrong, it wasn't Revel's fault. This was a huge misunderstanding that went horribly wrong."

"_That's_ Revel?" Bulda asked in surprise, bushy eyebrows rising in an eerily similar copy of human surprise. "Your sister's mate?"

Anna flushed deeply and shifted, offering the former captain a feeble shrug when she couldn't find a more decorous way around Bulda's statement. "He's not…exactly her mate. They're together just not…._together _together. I mean…that are _physically_ but not—you know—official."

"You humans have such a strange way of determining mates," one of the trolls nearby muttered. Bulda shot him a disapproving look, and the male troll blanched, turning his head away in a futile attempt to appear innocent and non-conspicuous under Bulda's sharp stare.

"Now's not the time, Jernda. Go fetch, Grand Pabbie. Tell him it's an emergency."

Jernda, a little pudgy troll with a gored-shaped face and blue crystals hanging around his thick neck, ducked his head and scurried off. Bulda turned her attention back onto Anna and Kristoff with an exasperated sigh.

"Now, tell me _exactly_ what happened."

"Revel's a king in hiding," Anna explained quickly, using her hands to emphasize her sentences and gaining speed the more she spoke, "who was framed for the murder of his father by his older brother. He ran and hid in Arendelle for years, becoming our captain of the guard. He and Elsa became a thing—somehow, I don't even know— but when Adrek, his brother, came to the Summit he saw Revel and recognized him and wanted to take him back to Asham and put him on trial. But Revel didn't kill his father, Fritz, Adrek's lover, did, but no one else knows that but me and Revel. Elsa said she wouldn't let Revel leave the kingdom but had to put him in jail for a little while to save face. I broke him out of jail and sent him up to the ice castle, but Elsa found out and got mad….like really _really _man," the princess touched her bruised cheek and winced, a movement that wasn't lost on Bulda. "Then she went after Revel but Adrek followed. There was a confrontation at the castle and…" out of words and breath, Anna turned towards Revel for the rest of the story. Bulda turned too, hands on her hips and dark eyes drawn into slits.

"Well, outsider, what happened next?"

Still flushed, Revel stared at her evenly, determined to not let these rock-people intimidate him or sweep him under the rug because he wasn't part of their community. "Elsa trapped me in the upper floor of her castle and went down to talk to Fritz and Adrek alone. She must have confronted the two of them with Adrek's disinheritance letter and my brother ordered his lover to attack her. She…" his breath hitched and he swallowed hard, pushing past the burn of shame and the growing lump in his throat. "She fought and killed Fritz, but not before he gravely wounded her."

"And how did you reach her?"

"I don't know what happened while they fought, but somehow her castle lost its stability and started falling apart. I escaped and climbed down to her, but I was too late. Fritz had already done his damage by torturing her…evening blinding her with what looks like a pepper bulb infused with volcanic glass."

At the mention of the glass, Bulda gasped, dark eyes wreathed with concern and dismay. "_No_, how did he know to use frozen-fire," she whispered to herself, going down into her hands and knees and leaning closer. The troll-mother could sense the natural mineral clinging to Elsa's cheeks and eyes as well as sense it within her lungs where it could do the most damage. Some had even made it into her stomach, settling against the lining very close to where her power resided.

"Frozen-fire?" Revel blinked, unsure of what the troll-mother meant.

"You call it obsidian," Bulda explained. She sniffed the air a couple of times like a hound catching a scent but frowned deeply when she couldn't sense what she was looking for. "I can't tell if it's the blue kind." Mouth pressed in a hard line, she reached for the queen when a large stone tumbled into the clearing and uncurled, revealing an older looking troll with a shaggy mane of yellow, grass-like hair and bushy yellow eyebrows. He had numerous yellow stones around his neck and walked with a hunch, moss cloak dragging the ground behind him.

"Do not touch her," he commanded in a raspy voice, hand out to stop Bulda who pulled back immediately.

"Grand Pabbie," Anna gasped and reached for him. The old troll took her hand and squeezed it gently, a warm smile spreading across his wizened face.

"Anna-dear, it's good to see you again; I only wish it were under better circumstances."

"Please, Pabbie, Elsa's been hurt really badly. We knew she wouldn't make it back to the castle, so Kristoff had us bring her here. I know you don't usually help like this," she implored, squeezing his rock hard hand with a desperate tightness, "but you have to save her."

"I will do everything in my power to help her; you know that," the troll chief said gravely. "It's my duty to the Frosberg line."

"Thank you," Anna breathed, a weight physically lifting off her shoulders. For the first time in two days she finally felt like she could breathe properly again. "Let me know if we can help in any—"

Suddenly, the princess broke off in mid-sentence and sucked in a ragged breath, doubling over, her knees buckling. Kristoff was quick to snatch her up, arm around her shoulders.

"Anna, what's wrong?" he asked, face twisted with worry.

"I…I don't—" she gasped again and pressed a hand against her stomach, eyes squeezed shut against the pain. Exhaling in sharp little bursts, she tried to stand but couldn't manage it, her legs turning to jelly under her. Realization lit her eyes and she looked up at her husband, a mixture of worry and relief warring for dominance over her face. "I think…babies a-are…c-coming," she managed.

"What?!" he gasped and knelt down next to her, cupping her face in his hands. Now?!"

"Y-yes…now," she panted before another contraction tore her words from her and she bit back a scream by burying her face in his shoulder.

"But you're water hasn't broken! Has it?" he pressed, pulling back so he could see her and searching for the telltale wetness the physician had told them to expect.

The princess give him a pained, sheepish smile. "When you were c-coming out of…ice castle. I….thought I'd—lost the—both of you. Thought I'd just…been scared. Stupid, huh?"

The mountain man pulled her close again and planted a kiss on the side of her head. She weathered another spasm, teeth gritted and hand's clutching her husband's tunic. "No love, you're not stupid. We'll get through this, and we're in the best place. Ma, can help you."

"Kristoff," Bulda began quietly, walking over to Anna and putting a hand on her stomach and flushed cheek with motherly tenderness, "I can't. I don't know anything about birthing human children. None of us do."

"But," he stammered, looking despondently between Pabbie and his rock-mother, "but you raised me and Sven. Surely you can—"

"Raising and birthing are two very different things, grandson," Pabbie said, turning towards him with a concerned frown. "She needs a human midwife should anything go wrong. She needs to go back to the castle."

"Not without….n-not without Elsa," Anna heaved.

"She'll be fine, Anna," Revel reassured her with forced conviction, drawing their attention back to him. He didn't want to be left alone with these alien creatures any more than Anna wanted to leave her sister again, but the princess was in labor and needed the royal midwife.

"We've got her," Bulda said, patting Anna's arm with a warm smile. "Go have those babies. I want to be a grand-rock-mother by the end of the day."

"But…" this time she wasn't able to stifle the scream and collapsed, sweat starting to prickle her brow.

"No, we're going. Come on, Sven!" Kristoff said, scooping her up despite her objections. A thought struck the mountain man half way out of the valley and he turned back towards Revel. The former captain knew what he was grappling with before he even opened his mouth. If Kristoff took the sled how were he and Elsa supposed to get back to Arendelle? Even at a good clip, the castle was still two hours away. Walking would triple that easily.

"Leave Elsa's fjord pony. Take Sigmund and the guards back with you as an escort. Have him tell my little brother what happened. I'll bring Elsa back once she's stable enough to move."

Kristoff waffled a moment, clearly torn, but a shuddering gasp from his wife propelled him forward and he practically jogged down the corridor with her cradled in his arms. As his footfalls faded into silence, Revel turned back to the gathering of trolls and forced himself to remain calm. He knew it would take a long while for him to fully grasp the fact that, yes, there were mythological creatures staring back at him, and yes, apparently, they did exist.

_Elsa has ice magic, why shouldn't this be surprising?_

But it was. Revel had never been a particularly religious man or one to believe in myths and legends. His years spent in Brekemel and living with the poachers in the woods had taught him that the only things he needed to believe in were the things he could see directly in front of him. Forces that worked beyond the veil of human consciousness, the dark things that roamed the night, were of no concern to him when his only purpose in life was to survive until sunrise and making sure he had enough food to last the week. Even after he'd settled in Arendelle, Revel hadn't taken up going to chapel or Mass, preferring to spend his time in the woods surrounded by the serenity of nature. It wasn't until he'd witnessed Elsa's powers during the Great Freeze that he truly began to wonder what walked beyond his sight, but this, right now, this was almost too much to handle.

"Well, that's one crisis averted. I'm going to be a grandparent," Bulda beamed, coming back to kneel in front of Elsa. "See Pabbie, you're not the only one," she winked, helpless to keep the broad smile off her face. Grand Pabbie smiled thinly, his eyes leaving Bulda's and focusing on the broken queen.

"Whoever did this knew how to inflict pain," Pabbie said, looking between the queen and Revel, eyes drawn into thin slits, not missing the despair that rounded the former captain's shoulders and dulled his green eyes. Slowly, the troll chief walked about the bed of moss and approached the only other human in the clearing. Revel knew nothing of magic and its happenings, knew nothing about these creatures and how they operated, and braced for whatever might happen next.

"She was tortured at my expense," he hissed in a raspy whisper, anger creasing his brow as he met Pabbie's eyes.

"You are her lover," the troll chief said, stating it as a fact when he could have just phrased it as a question.

"Yes," Revel answered, looking down at Elsa and gently stroking the back of her head. "I love her."

"Do you possess powers as well?"

"I…what?" he stammered in bafflement. "No, no I'm human. I mean…as far as I can tell."

"Then how did you survive that?" Pabbie asked, pointing at the bolt in Revel's chest.

"I don't know," he said, gently touching the skin directly under the bolt and hanging his head. "I—I shouldn't have but…" Revel spread his hands in a gesture of his own morbid confusion, shrugging helplessly.

Head cocked, the troll chief closed his eyes as if listening to something, raising a hand for everyone to fall silent. The surrounding trolls instantly complied, lips pressing shut as they all watched in rapt silence. Tilting his head in the opposite direction, Pabbie softly hummed three baritone notes like he was throwing a lure into a lake and waited for something to bite back. Apparently, he didn't have to wait long. His eyes were still closed when he jerked, granite-like right hand held before him, the crystals around his neck glowing like tiny suns. The former captain blanched and leaned back, not wanting the small creature to touch him, but not wanting to offend the only things that could save Elsa's life. Pabbie spread his rocky fingers wide and whispered a single, incomprehensible word that thrummed through the air like distant thunder. The tingling in Revel's chest returned with a vengeance moments before a soft blue glow suffused the fabric of his shirt and began to shine brightly.

"What the hell…?" he gasped, looking down in bewilderment.

"Your shirt…please remove it," Pabbie asked gently, opening his eyes with a concentrated frown.

Perplexed by the tingling glow, Revel did as he was told and carefully removed his shirt. Pabbie and the rest of the trolls sucked in a collective breath, but none so sharply as Bulda who practically scrambled to the chief's side and stared wide-eyed.

"How is that possible? The two can never mix," she whispered, reaching out to touch the palm-sized snowflake glowing against Revel's chest. Carefully, she grabbed the shaft of the crossbow bolt and easily slid it free before he could stop her. He'd expected to feel some type of pain, but there was nothing but numbness where the shaft had been. The former captain stared mutely at the piece of wood and bent metal arrowhead in the troll-mother's hand, his own hand sliding over the place where it had struck him in the heart no more than an hour ago. There was no hole to be found and no break in his skin. The only thing that indicated he'd ever come so close to death was the snowflake brand just above his heart.

"How is this possible," he gasped, mirrored Bulda's amazement, looking down at where a wound should be. He recognized the snowflake as an exact copy of the one Elsa had made for him during the Christmas season. Right down to the delicate spread of crystalline fingers and hexagonal bends, it was identical in every way save for one very important element.

The flake wasn't a sculpture or a trinket.

This was a brand much like the handprint on Elsa's shoulder but far less crude. It also appeared to be more crystal than ice, stone facets winking in its own internal light that burned and pulsed in time with his heartbeat. Dimly, Revel realized there were two sections of leather cord attached to one of the snowflakes arms that still circled his neck. It took a moment for him to understand what this could mean, but when it finally hit him he couldn't help but feel the air rush from his lungs.

"Does this usually happen with troll crystals?" he asked, mind in a daze.

"You were wearing one of our crystals?" Pabbie inquired, eyebrows raising in surprise.

Revel nodded and pulled the leather cord free, the ends attached to the snowflake popping off easily. "Elsa gave it to me to wear a couple of weeks ago."

"I had wondered why I didn't feel her through the stone…" the troll chief mumbled.

"So…these stones don't usually do this?"

"No. Ice and earth magic can never mix," Bulda said by way of explanation, the awe in her voice only lending more gravity to the startling revelation. "But it has in you…"

"Love," Pabbie suddenly intoned, nodding gravely as he came to a silent conclusion. "She must love you dearly, young one. I don't know of any power that has the ability to bring two unstable forms of magic together in such a way, but the queen did it to save your life."

"She…she did?" he gaped, mouth almost a perfect "O" of astonishment. "All I remember is feeling the bolt hit me and falling back into her. Then everything went dark. I thought I'd died…"

"Well," Bulda said, clapping her hands together with a clack and kneeling next to the queen once again. "These are mysteries we can ponder later. Right now we have healing to do. Let's get these clothes off Elsa so we can—"

No one really knew what happened until after the fact, but Bulda shot backwards with a thunderous clap, rolling to a stop some feet away in a daze. Everyone froze save for Revel who had hunched protectively over Elsa's body, face scrunched with pain. The snowflake on his chest had flared with a sudden searing burn that slowly diminished the faster he calmed. The troll-mother groaned and was helped to her feet by Jernda and a few other startled trolls, wincing and shaking her right hand as she fought to regain her balance.

"Bite the earth and stone," she cursed, trembling from head to heel, her feet unsteady. Raising her hand to her face, she stared open mouthed at the black char of her fingertips, needle-like frost clinging to the rest of her hand. Instinctively the trolls backed up, eyes bright with a knowing fear, their jewels aglow.

"I know this magic," Pabbie said in a harsh whisper, his voice carrying unnaturally around the valley. He clutched at his jewels like a priest clutching his rosary, mouth moving in what could have been a silent prayer. "By the gods, she's back."

The uneasy murmurs of the troll congregation suddenly ceased, a fragile silence overtaking the crescent bowl as all eyes turned to Pabbie. "Please, Revel, remove the queen's garments. I need to see something."

Wearily, the former captain did as asked and removed Elsa's tattered shirt as gently as he could, mindful of her injuries, exposing her naked torso to the trolls. In the faint light of early morning, her skin was the color of marble causing the dark bruises to stand in stark, gruesome contrast. But none were darker and more angry looking than the brand on her shoulder. Gripped by some unspoken need to check the wound on her side, Revel carefully untied the knot keeping the makeshift patch in place and attempting to peel it away only to find it coated in frost. It was frozen and wouldn't budge at first. Worrying he'd tear open fresh scabs and reopen the wound, but knowing he'd have to remove the patch so Pabbie could heal her, Revel gritted his teeth and pulled anyway, jumping back with a startled shout when he saw what was happening.

The gash on Elsa's side was alive with chunks of spiny, ruby-red ice that uncurled and rose off her skin like porcupine quills. Disturbingly, the savage needles tracked him as he moved, leaning this way and that whenever he shifted. Staring in horror, he realized her back was the same way, barbs of ice covering the wound like a protective predator hunched over a kill. Red needles rose and receded, a promise of pain in their gleaming tips.

Pabbie was the closest of the trolls and took a reflexive step back, fingers twitching nervously at his side. His kin mirrored him, some scooping up the young ones and edging away to a safe distance until only Revel, Pabbie, Bulda and the prone queen remained within the clearing.

"I cannot help her," Pabbie whispered, clutching his jewels. "I'm so sorry, but I cannot."

"What!?" Revel barked and almost lunged over Elsa to grab the little troll. "You have to help her! Kristoff and Anna said you could, so do it! _She's dying_!"

"I know this, Revel," the chief sighed, face drawn with grief. "But I cannot heal her with troll magic, and that is all I know. She will not let me."

"_She_? She _who_? Elsa's unconscious and bleeding to death!"

"Saja," Pabbie spoke the name like it was a curse, which, apparently, it was. Bulda shrank away from him, a hand over her mouth.

"No," she hissed, "she can't be back."

"That is her mark," he indicated, pointing at the handprint. "She has been branded by the Frost Born therefore beyond my help. I am sorry, Revel."

"You can't just say no!" Revel was on his feet before he realized what was happening, face flushed with anger. "She needs you, and Anna trusted you! How can you give up when you've not even tried?!"

Bulda's eyes darkened and it looked as if she was going to say something when Pabbie put out his hand to forestall her. "Please, daughter. He doesn't understand." Turning back to Revel he said, "I cannot help her because I cannot _physically_ _touch_ her. Watch." Pabbie cautiously approached the queen and extended his right hand towards the brand. He got within a couple of inches of the mark when spines of grayish-black ice rose out of her skin and stretch towards his hand, twitching in a grim kind of anticipation. Slowly, he moved his hand in a circle and the ice tracked him, needles quivering.

"If I were to touch her it could kill us both. As I said, ice and earth magic do not mix."

"Can't you heal her without magic? Stitch the wound close and apply an ointment? There has to be _something_ you can do." He knew he was grasping at straws now, but there had to be a way to save her.

Pabbie hung his head sadly. "We trolls can sense things through the earth, young one. When I first arrived, I sent my second-sight through the earth and into her body. Elsa bleeds internally. If I were able to use my magic, I could knit her back together with the earth-song, but Saja will not allow it. If my magic touches her it will be repelled in the worst kind of ways."

Revel sank to his knees, desolation breaking over him like a tidal wave. "I just got her back," he choked, tears welling in his eyes. "Please, I just got her back. I can't lose her again. There'd be nothing left in me if I did."

"I am sorry, Revel; I truly am. Elsa is as much a daughter to me as Anna. I've watched her grow up all these years, and it tears at my heart knowing there is nothing I can do. Believe me, if there was any other way I would gladly do it, but earth magic is all we trolls' know."

"What should we do then?" he heard himself ask, all hope rushing out of him and leaving him empty and deflated.

The troll chief was silent for a moment, looking down at the queen with obvious pain in his eyes. Even Bulda hung her head and deflated, glancing at Jernda who'd come to stand near her with sadness in his eyes. "We make her comfortable. I don't know how much longer she'll last, but that doesn't mean her passing can't be an easy one."

The sob that tore from the former captain's throat was raw and shattering. He bent in half and rested his forehead against Elsa's lukewarm shoulder, feeling the spines of ice brush his skin. He could smell her familiar high-mountain scent and remembered happier times when he'd held her close and never felt so content in his life. It all felt like a lifetime ago, lived through different people than the two who sat here now: one on the brink of death and the other clinging on with a defiant desperation. Revel had never had such a driving urge to pray before this moment, but with his eyes screwed shut and tears rolling down his cheeks, splashing onto his beloved's skin, he opened himself to whatever god would listen and sent the most fervent pray he could.

_Please, I've asked for nothing from any of you until now. I'll pay any price so long as she lives. I swear it. Saja, I swear it. Snaer, I swear it. Just don't take her from me._

"Bulda," Pabbie said quietly, motioning the troll-mother closer with a sad wave. "Fetch some moss for a pillow and something to cover her with. She should not be—"

Something exploded in the sky above, the concussion rocking the valley with a thunderous roar like a canon blast.

"The barrier's been breached!" someone shouted in a frantic panic, all eyes jerking up to stare at the shimmering metallic dome above their heads. Revel hadn't notice anything while walking in with Kristoff and Anna, but even he saw the hole and the peek of blue sky beyond the boiling translucent shell.

_They're protected by magic,_ he thought, watching the hole grow, the barrier dissolving into glittering wonder.

Half a second later they all heard the flutter of powerful wings as an object landed in the midst of the panicked trolls, connecting with the earth with a tremendous crash and blast of arctic air. Ice erupted under the startled congregation, fangs of translucent gray and blue rising out of the ground and surrounding the small cluster around the queen.

The troll chief spun just in time to see a massive hawk, ice body shimmering in the morning sun, swoop out of the air and land on a stone next to where Revel sat hunched protectively over his beloved, icy talons gouging long furrows into the stone as it settled. Chaos erupted as the trolls dove for cover, shouting and screaming in a language not remotely human. Young ones were snatched up and carried away. Other retreated into the earth, rolling into themselves and becoming immobile stones once more. Even Pabbie and Bulda retreated from the beast, backing against the low wall of ice, a crackling arc of some kind of magic dancing between the troll chief's fingers as he eyed the bird with barely contained terror.

"Himmelen," Bulda breathed, body hunched with anticipation.

The ice-hawk gave a piercing shriek, wings spread in a show of what could only be dominance before swinging his head around and staring pointedly at Revel. The former captain, frozen by the strange creature's appearance and the chaos taking place around him, stared at the hawk through red rimmed eyes. Himmelen cocked his head as if curious as to why this human had tears in his eyes, snapping his razor sharp beak and rumbling unhappily. Had this been any other situation, Revel would have marveled at the creature's lifelike appearance. He knew it was made of ice, could feel the cold radiating off it like heat haze, but every feather had been crafted with such loving precision it looked and moved like the real thing. He had seen his fair share of predator birds in his lifetime—hunting with raptors was a common sport— but Revel had never seen Himmelen's equal in beauty or lethality. Snapping its beak once more, the ice-bird uncurled its left talons and dropped something round and very, very cold onto the ground.

Revel focused on the blue ball lying just in front of Elsa. It was larger than his thumb and shone with an arctic light that reminded him of how the queen's magic looked when condensed. Within the ball he could see swirling waves of power like a whirlpool trapped under glass, and his chest began to tingle.

"A Glacier-eye," Pabbie exhaled and let his sparking hand drop. "I didn't think there were any in existence."

"What is it?" Revel queried, hesitant to pick it up but somehow knowing it wouldn't harm him.

"A powerful form of ice magic. Snaer made them centuries ago for her daughter should she ever become mortally wounded, but I'd thought Saja used them all on her children…" Pabbie trailed off and turned his wizened attention on the hawk who regarded him with a proud kind of disdain.

"I know you can hear me, Saja. Sending your messenger is proof enough that you again move amongst the realms of man and myth, but know this. I and my kind mean you no harm. We have learned from our mistakes and pay for our past transgressions daily. What was done to you and your kin was terrible, I know this, I was there, but do not punish your descendant by giving us healing that you know we cannot give her. Unless you remove the brand, I cannot heal the queen."

Himmelen startled everyone by jumping from his perch and alighting on Revel's shoulder with a powerful burst of air. The former captain stiffened, feeling the bite of the creature's sharp talons into the naked flesh of his left shoulder. There was weight and substance to the ice-bird but not as much as he might have expected. Icy feathers brushed his skin as the raptor ruffled and bend down, sharply tapping the mark on Revel's chest with his beak.

"Hey, hey easy," he warned, tilting his head away from the bird, all the while hoping it didn't find his ear appetizing. Did ice-birds need to eat? Himmelen tapped his chest again, but this time left his beak pressed against the snowflake. Revel felt a ripple of—something—work through him before his vision suddenly began to dim and his muscles turned to jelly, all energy leaving him. He felt his head loll, eyes heavy, and fought to stay awake as the world spun around him, colors running or bleeding together like water thrown on a canvas.

_You think I would give you this gift without means of using it?_

Everyone heard Saja's voice, Revel included, though no one could pinpoint where it was coming from. It seemed to drift through the air on its own accord, following a predetermined path through the valley.

_I have given you a powerful tool to be used by an equally powerful tool, but it may not be enough._

"If you remove the brand, I can help heal her," Pabbie said to the air. He thought he felt a brush of cold trail over his shoulders and forced himself to remain still. A shadow shifted along a wall of stone next to a stooped Revel, and the troll chief saw a ghostly hand slide over the human's right shoulder. "Be cautious of the energy you draw from him. He has been through much."

_And he will go through more if he is to love my descendant. I sense the entwined magics within him, troll chief. I know what this means, and so do you. Use him to handle the Glacier-eye and heal her, but know I will be watching._

"He is not meant to wield magic such as this," Pabbie pressed, boldness coloring his words. "It could kill him. Remove the brand so that I—"

_The brand will stay! I have not forgotten what you did to my family, Pabbie Orgramsson. I have not forgotten what your father and last chief did to my children. The brand will remain so I know your power can never touch her._

Pabbie flinched at the mention of his sire and accepted Saja's ruling with a silent nod. "What happens if Elsa is too far gone? The Glacier-eye can only heal so much."

_It will be up to her lover to make certain she does not slip beyond his reach. That is all I can tell you._

Himmelen slowly lifted his head, removing his beak from Revel's chest. The hand on the former captain's shoulder winked out of existence, leaving a small impression of frost behind as the only indication something had been there. Revel sat up with a gasp, a charge of energy arching through him like a bolt of lightning. The ice-bird flapped his wings twice before dissolving into nothingness, taking the ice in the valley with him, following his mistress into the pocket between the living and the dead where myths and legends dwelled.

"_Fuck_," he swore, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes and scrubbing at them. He tingled from head to toe, his skin alive and crawling as if thousands of ants were racing under the surface. Slowly his vision returned from the haze it had been thrown into, but he wasn't able to completely dispel his strange double vision.

It was unclear what Saja had done, but he guessed she'd somehow used Himmelen to tap into his physical energy to communicate with the trolls like she'd done with Elsa in the ice palace. The effects were unsettling and jarring. While he'd been under her hold, he'd been able to hear and see everything, but things looked striking different as if he were looking through a lens into a world he couldn't begin to fathom. Everything appeared as if it were made of smoke: trees and rocks and grass painted in muted colors and connected to each other by a dizzying array of softly glowing knots of power running through the earth. When he'd looked at Pabbie, the troll chief was wreathed in golden fire that matched the color of his stones. At his feet, golden strands of light permeated the soil and dove deep into the ground where Revel could feel a humming like the cords of a distant song. All the trolls seemed to have the same flickering fire around them, the colors and the strength of the fire varying depending on the number of stones around their neck. But that wasn't all Revel noticed while caught in a gap between worlds. He saw things shifting through the smoke-like trees and boulders, creatures both large and small scurry around or standing statuesque, staring back at him. The former captain averted his gaze, not wanting to see or be seen by things he couldn't quite comprehend.

Looking down at the woman laying before him, he stared in awed wonder at the faint blue cloud clinging to Elsa's skin, dusted with thousands of glittering fractals. The spines of bloody ice had disappeared leaving a faint dusting of frost like a scab over her wounds. He could see a small ball just below her stomach, aglow with power that diminished with each beat of her heart as if counting down to the inevitable moment when her heart would stop again and he'd be helpless to start it. Elsa was dying, that was clear, and she didn't have much time left.

Feeling mobility rapidly returning, Revel reached out and took the Glacier-eye into his hand, feeling a surge of wild power flutter against his palm. It was lighter than he expected, weighing almost nothing. "What am I supposed to do with his?" he asked, looking to Pabbie and Bulda for guidance. He'd heard Saja's command and knew only he could touch it, but that didn't mean he knew what to do with it.

"Put it into her," the troll-mother said simply; which really wasn't as simple as that, or at least Revel didn't think so.

"But…how do I do that without cutting into her skin?" He knew he was out of his depth and felt like a child scrambling to keep up with a lesson he hardly understood. Pabbie saw the frustrated bewilderment on his face and sat down in front of the queen with a patient sigh.

"I will guide you through this. Bulda," he said turning, "fetch us some water and clean moss sponges. We'll need strips of soaked zealbark and subgub paste. If there are any pieces of clean cloth in Kristoff's quarters, bring them here so that we can wrap her wounds." Bulda nodded, happy to have something to do, and rushed off to get what Pabbie needed. "The rest of you continue with your daily duties. We'll need to repair the barrier before sundown."

The handful of trolls who still remained after Himmelen's appearance bolted away, clearly relieved to have something to do as well. Revel watched them go and felt himself warming towards the troll chief. He ran his clan well, it would seem.

"Now, first, lay her on her back. The moss under her has healing properties and will not agitate her wound."

Revel did as instructed and gently pulled Elsa onto her back.

"Place the Glacier-eye just above her navel and press gently."

Again he did as instructed and watched with wonder as the large marble dissolved into her skin. "Where'd it go?"

"Into the place where her magic dwells."

"Will it come back out?"

"No," Pabbie said, shaking his head. "It will dissolve into her body's magic and go where she needs the most healing."

"Will it heal her outside as well?"

"That depends on how gravely injured she is inside. The Glacier-eye only has so much power, but we can help it along by closing the wounds ourselves. I…" the troll chief shifted uncomfortably, fingers twitching, "I cannot touch her to help you. I can sing to the earth to give you strength and clarity of mind, but that is as much as I can do, I'm afraid."

"Closing wounds is something I'm capable of doing. I've had to stitch my men back up before," Revel said with a faint smile, a small spark of hope burning in his chest. Maybe, just maybe, all was not yet lost.

Suddenly, Elsa arched off the moss bed and gurgled, something black spattering her lips as she struggled to breathe. Revel quickly turned her on her side, heart like a battery ram in his chest as she continued to vomit black sludge mixed with blood onto the ground.

"Is this supposed to happen?!"

Pabbie touched the inky substance and frowned. "This is volcanic glass," he murmured, rubbing it between his fingers. "Did she ingest frozen-fire?"

"Fritz hit her in the face with a pepper bulb with pulverized volcanic glass in it. Bulda said she felt some in her lungs and stomach," Revel answered frantically as his beloved continued to cough violently, black corruption streaming out of her nose and spattering the ground the more she heaved it up.

"Then this is a good sign. The Glacier-eye has gone to work and is forcing it out of her system. Give it a minute, the episode will pass."

And just as he'd said, a few seconds later Elsa quieted, her breathing a little raspy but greatly improved. Revel wiped the blackness off her lips and out from under her nose, still shaking from the shock it had given him.

Bulda returned shortly with a large bowl carved from a solid piece of black rock and a cluster of plush, yellow moss-balls under her arm. Two other trolls followed behind and deposited the things Pabbie had ordered neatly around the troll chief. The troll-mother carefully set the bowl down and withdrew a fiery red stone from a pouch around her neck, dropping it into the basin. Instantly the water began to steam and gently boil, and she added the lumps of moss so they could soak. From under her other arm she withdrew a folded bundle of wool and handed it to Revel.

"It's bad luck to remain in bloody clothing while healing," she said indicating Elsa's tights and Revel's pants with a swift glance. "They're Kristoff's old pants and top. He was about your size until his mushroom grew and stones dropped, so they should fit. There are two pairs of shirts and pants for the both of you."

"Thank you," Revel said with a kind smile and took the bundle. Bulda also offered him a slender bone needle and a spool of animal sinew he could use to close the gash on the queen's back and side.

He bent to work, happy to give his hands something to do while the Glacier-eye worked its magic. Pabbie ducked his head and began to sing, a gentle song that eased the tension in Revel's body and helped clear the fog from his head. Using the hot water, he cleaned the gash on her side before wetting and threading the sinew through the bone needle and stitching the skin back together. Years of practice on himself and his guards made Revel an efficient worker, and in no time the wound was closed, the two halves of skin meeting almost seamlessly together. He smeared it with the sweet smelling poultice Pabbie had provided before covering it in wetted bark and wrapping it tightly with long strips of wool. He did the same with her back: cleaning, stitching and medicating the gash before laying down a protective layer of wetted bark and wrapping it snugly.

It took quite some time to finish, the sun creeping across the sky at a steady pace, but by the end of the afternoon, as early evening set in, Elsa was wrapped from waist to shoulder in wool bandages and on the mends. Bulda had replaced the water in the black bowl twice, so he used what was left to wash away the pepper powder and blood on her face and legs after removing her tights and covering her with a blanket provided by another female troll.

"You should use this too," an adolescent troll said, and he recognized the single mushroom growing in its shoulder. He sheepishly held out a small comb made from stone. Revel took it was a warm smile and thanked the little troll who scampered off to a safe distance and watched him from behind a boulder that could have been his parent.

The former captain combed out Elsa's matted hair, careful to gently work the tangles free so he didn't tug on her scalp. He was at a bad angle to braid it again, so Revel left the platinum locks undone and went about redressing her in the wool pants the troll-mother had given them. Getting the clothing on was much more difficult than taking it off. He had to move slowly so as to not pop any fresh stitches or stretch the skin around it. Eventually he was able to pull the loose-fitting pair of pants over her waist and synch them securely in place, but decided against the matching tunic. It would be best to leave her torso uncovered so that the bandages could breathe. Leaning back with an exhausted sigh, Revel felt Pabbie's eyes on him and turned his head, vision temporarily swimming until he was able to focus.

"You've done well," the troll chief smiled. "Perhaps you should rest for a while."

Revel shook his head even though he felt the exhaustion of the past couple of days settling over him. "I'll stay awake and watch over her."

"In that case, let us move the two of you into Kristoff's old quarters so the queen can rest in peace."

"I wouldn't advise moving—"

Revel should have known better than to worry. The troll chief chuckled softly as he stood and twitched his fingers towards the moss bed Elsa lay upon. It moved free of the packed earth and trailed behind him as if he were pulling it with invisible strings. Revel staggered to his aching feet, his back cramped from hours of sitting and muscles quivering from exhaustion and overuse, and tottered after Pabbie. The troll chief led him to a small alcove farther back in the valley where large slabs of rock had been leaned against a sturdy, natural overhang, forming a cozy little room. It was big enough for two with ample room to spare and already furnished with plush blankets and furs. A wooden pole had been imbedded into the stone and a rawhide curtain hung from it, closing the room off should whoever sleeping within want privacy. The moss carpet settled in front of the overhang, close enough that Revel could gently lift Elsa and set her down on the furs and blankets without stressing her body.

"She should be more comfortable here," Pabbie said with a nod.

"Thank you. I don't know what I would have done without any of your help," Revel said, leaning heavily on the stone slab. Despite his all over ache at having sat hunched for most of the afternoon, he was starting to feel very weak and lightheaded as the adrenaline in his blood finally abated and he found himself starting to uncoil. The lack of having anything proper to eat or drink in nearly three days wasn't helping either.

"As I said before, it is my duty to help the Frosberg line."

Revel nodded tiredly and closed his eyes, listening to the silence and breathing in the fragrant scent of churned earth and pine.

"You should rest. You look like you're about to collapse."

"I need to keep watch," the former captain argued stubbornly but with half the conviction he felt. Pabbie took his hand and pulled him into the room, Revel following like a witless child.

"You need rest. I'll have Bulda sit by the entrance and listen through the earth for any signs of trouble. If she hears any, she'll wake you."

Hardly able to stand any longer, Revel sat heavily on the furs and blankets, limbs like led weights. Pabbie stepped out of the room and pulled the rawhide curtain shut, plunging the quarters into gray darkness. Shifting around, Revel found a pillow made up pink and blue fabric and tucked it under Elsa's head before covering her in a blanket. He found the matching pillow nearby, a massive thing that was obviously Kristoff's, and lay down next to her, covering his legs with the same blanket. For a silent moment he just stared at her, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept. Suddenly overcome with the urge to touch her, he jacked himself up on his elbow and laid his hand against her cheek with soft tenderness. Elsa skin had nearly returned to its natural coolness, only a slight bit of warmth coloring her cheeks. A shaft of weak light fell across her face, turning her hair white and shimmery like a frozen waterfall.

"I love you," he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers and squeezing her hand that lay across her stomach. "I have always loved you. I don't really believe in fate or happenstance, but too many coincidences have continued to push us together, too many points for me to ignore, so I say this. I love you, Elsa Frosberg. More than anything, I love you, and I want to be with you for the rest of eternity. You are my moon and stars, my sun and air. I can't breathe without you; I can't think. So come back to me; come back so I can tell you all these things and hold you one more time. I love you; god I love you, till the end of time, till the last grain of sand falls. You are mine, and I am yours, and I'll never let you go again."

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><p><strong>AN:**Whew! Massive chapters are fun but taxing to write. We'll be seeing a definite word count decrease with the next two chapters. No more 20K+ behemoths, but we're still not done. So much more to come, so stick around because I promise the ending and epilogue will be worth it. As always, I love hearing what you all think so review away! Also, don't feel shy about poking me on my tumblr. Love chatting with you all. =)


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **So here we go, two chapters till we draw this story to a close. I can't believe we've reached this point. This has been an amazing experience, and I just want to say thank you to all my readers, old and new. You've all been so wonderful, and I hope I can bring this piece to a close in a way that won't have you all baying for my blood. =)

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><p><em> Please, save them! I'll do anything you ask…!<em>

Elsa squinted into the gray half-light surrounding her, unsure of where she was or what was happening. It was like she stood in shifting mist that coiled and receded like tidal ocean currents, forms rising before her only to fall away into nothingness while the same sentence echoed around her like a broken chime.

_Please, save them!_

There was an obvious desperation to whomever was screaming, a seizing fear that tore at her heart because she recognized the frenzied pitch. Her own voice had sounded like that three years ago on the fjord when she'd heard the shattering of Hans' sword rather than the dull, wet thunk of it imbedding in her flesh and turned to find Anna standing over her, frozen solid and undoubtedly dead. She'd shrilled one single name, her voice carrying across the ice choked fjord in a wail of terror and desolation. That was what the voice in the mist sounded like, all hope hinging on one miniscule grain of hope that was quickly drifting away on a runaway current.

Moving carefully, Elsa picked her way through the shifting shroud, trying to find her way out. This wasn't like the last time she'd been stuck in the deep, dreamless sleeping a body falls into when gravely injured. There was no vast blackness, no comforting weightlessness or silence. This was something else entirely, but a larger part of her didn't seem worried.

_After all I've been through let me rest for just a little while longer._

She didn't know how long she'd been in this in between place…didn't really know how she'd even gotten there. The last thing she remembered was seeing Revel and feeling him touch her face, warm knuckles brushing her skin. He'd smiled at her, but the smile had never reached his eyes, and why would it have? He was dead after all. Despite his words of reassurance, the queen had seen the bolt in his chest and the blood on his hands. Revel was dead, and she wanted nothing more than to let go of her broken, earthly body and join him, her father and mother in whatever existed beyond the physical plane.

_But what about Anna?_ a voice from the mist asked._ What will happen to her if you let go because things got too hard?_

Guilt burned in her chest and cheeks, and she hung her head. Yes, what would happen to Anna if she were to die? Surely she'd have to take over the kingdom, but would the stress of ruling be too much for her sister? Anna was resilient, yes, and had a pure, loving heart that would undoubtedly guide her, but she'd not been trained to rule a kingdom like the queen had since birth. Elsa would have continued to ponder these nagging questions and thoughts had the mist not began to clear and solid shapes emerged, warming with color the closer she neared. The queen emerged from the coiling gray tendrils and stepped into a vast valley of dark stone and towering monoliths that rose out of the ground like the skeletal fingers of giants. Some were simple stones, worn by years of exposure, while others bore swirling blue markings that shimmered in the fading daylight. Throughout the valley familiar round boulders littered the packed earth floor, scattered as far as the eye could see, and covered with blankets of moss and various forms of flora and fauna.

_Trolls…these are all trolls,_ Elsa thought in amazed wonder, never seen so many clustered in one area. Pabbie's clan was only about a hundred strong, but this clan had to be well over two thousand.

"Orgram! Orgram, please wake up!"

The queen started and turned towards the familiar voice and felt herself stiffen as Saja entered the valley clutching something to her chest. She looked haggard and tottering on the edge of madness, eyes wild and face waxy with trepidation. Her hair was a disheveled, sweaty mess that clung to her forehead and cheeks as she raced into the valley and knelt before the first large stone with blue markings.

"_Orgram_!" she shrilled, bent almost double over the bundle in her arms, chest heaving.

Suddenly the trolls came to life, unrolling like pill bugs and springing to their feet. They blinked in surprise at the Frost Born in their midst, lingering uncertainly where they stood rather than rush to her. After a moment, a young female troll approached, and Elsa felt a wave of recognition wash over her.

_Is that Bulda?_

No, her face was wrong, her ears weren't as large as Kristoff's troll-mother, and she wore purple stones where Bulda wore pinkish-red. But there was a strange familiarity to the female troll that trilled a note of curiosity in the queen the longer she stared. Elsa didn't know how the trolls mated or reproduced, it wasn't something she'd ever really wanted to know and thanked the stars Kristoff had never obliged to tell her, but this troll could have been Bulda's mother. The resemblance between the two was just too uncanny.

"Saja?" the troll asked, approaching with obvious caution. Frost had begun to accumulate under the kneeling Frost Born, snaking across the ground in erratic patterns. "What are you doing here? What's wrong?"

"Belluma," Saja choked, turning on her knees to face the female troll, tears trailing lines of silver down her face. "I need Orgram. Please…"

Elsa watched as her ancestor waved for someone out of sight to come forward as she placed the small bundle on the ground and pulled the blankets away. Both the queen and the Belluma sucked in a breath, the latter of the two taking a reflexive step back while Elsa stepped closer for a better look. The child was perhaps no more than five or six, already long of limb, like his mother, and sinewy like most boys his age. He had a thick head of white hair, also like Saja, and soft features that had yet to decide whether or not he'd take after his father or mother. It was plain to anyone he was built for running and climbing and mischief, only the child was far too still for someone so young and deathly pale. But what moved the troll away from him were the creeping lines of black corruption following the path of his veins starting from his chest and spreading throughout his body like acrid spider webs.

Elsa didn't hear the three other women approach but felt one brush past her in a shiver of cold as the body the queen possessed broke apart and reformed like smoke. They were all shield maidens, all dressed in clinking chainmail and leather armor, all with shields across their backs and swords at their hips, but what they carried close to their chests' weren't weapons but rather more children. Three more little ones were laid next to the first, all ranging in size and age from infant to perhaps three years old, and all covered in the same creeping sickness. The women departed without a word, retreating to a respectable distance, faces sallow and drawn out with grief.

"Blood poison," Belluma breathed.

"It had to be in their food," Saja explained in a rush, voice trembling. "We were eating and my eldest started complaining of a stomach ache. That's not abnormal, he eats like a horse, but then the other three started acting strangely: hazy gazes and shuddering like they were cold. I thought it was just a chill working through them, but then Reinn started seizing and vomiting blood. Isien, Jorund, and Gyda started shortly after. No one else was affected, but the dogs who ate the scraps of their food have the same symptoms. Belluma, who would do this to _children_?"

"I cannot answer that," the troll said with a sad sigh. "Saja, why did you bring them here and not take them to your human healers, or call upon your mother? You know our magics cannot mix."

"Snaer slumbers her deepest in late summer and is beyond my reach, and not even the Glacier-eye worked on them! I didn't know what else to do! None of my healers have ever seen anything like this, and if it's poison, like you suspect, there's an antidote, and who knows more about plants and healing properties than the trolls?"

"But Saja, we cannot—"

"Let me see, Belluma."

The troll ducked her head respectfully and stepped aside, joining the ranks of expressionless onlookers who lingered at a distance. In her place a large male troll emerged, his body almost entirely scraped of moss to that he was entirely rock save for a small loincloth around his groin. He wore a grass and moss cape across his stony shoulders and a wreath of flowers, herbs, and gems atop his head, marking him as chief. His craggy face, scared and lined from years of living in the elements, only seemed to enhance the shrewdness and depth in his dark eyes which he leveled impassively on Saja. The air of authority that rolled off him was almost palpable, and the surrounding trolls went to bent knee out of respect and reverence.

"Orgram please, you're the only one who can help them."

The troll chief regarded the children laid before him, dark eyes sweeping over each in turn as he tracked the creeping blackness in their veins as the corruption spread and slowly began to snuff out each life one-by-one. He was silent for a few heartbeats, simply staring as if in contemplation of something, before raising his head and leveling his ancient eyes on Saja once again.

"Belluma is right. They have been poisoned, and I believe I know by which plants."

The Frost Born exhaled a breath and clutched at her chest with an icy hand, something akin to hope lighting her blue eyes. "Can you make an antidote? I will give you anything you wish, I swear it. Just save them."

"Yes, I know what plants caused this, and yes, I do have an antidote, but the price for my help is too high for someone like you."

"I'll give you anything!" Saja shouted, pleading at his feet, all decorum gone. She was simply a mother now desperate to save the lives of her children, and she wasn't above begging. But Orgram's words still had the power to stun and terrify her. Whatever he wanted she would gladly give. Didn't he know that? Couldn't he see that etched into every inch of her being?

"The price is too high, Frost Born."

"Name it!"

For a brief moment Orgram was silent, his eyes trailing over the faces of his people until he found the one he'd been searching for, the one who glared back at him over the top of his bushy yellow eyebrows, fury practically rising in waves of heat from his little rock body. Elsa followed the troll chief's gaze and felt her breath catch when she realized Orgram was staring at a much younger Pabbie. The troll chief as Elsa knew him glared at the current chief with barely contained rage, and the look was so startling it made the queen go momentarily cold.

_Why does he look so angry? Is it because Orgram is going to help Saja? Is this what she was talking about…why she hated them so deeply?_

"Only one can live," Orgram said flatly, his gaze still lingering on Pabbie before he tuned back to her.

Saja rocked back, the shock and revulsion on her face mirrored by her shield maidens some ways behind her, Elsa included. "_What?_"

"That is the price. Only one of your children can live."

"I would never choose one above the other! How can you even suggest that?!"

"I warned you," Orgram smiled thinly, spreading his hands. His smile disappeared in a flash, a twisted scowl replacing it. "And you will not accept the price because you are weak and would rather see them all dead than raise one above the other. Do you think you live above the laws of nature just because you are the daughter of Snaer? Do you think you are not immune to the shadow of loss because of your powers? Things die every day! Grass, trees, animals…humans. They all die, some in clusters, some alone and isolated, but they all die. So why are you and your family immune to the embrace of death? You should be grateful you have the chance to save even one. Not many ever have that chance when left at the mercy of the world-mother."

"I can't just choose between them! They're not cattle or property or blades of grass, _they're my children!_"

"Does that somehow make them above the laws of nature? Young, sickly creatures perish so that the strong can survive. So pick the strongest who will survive and be done with it." Orgram rumbled with a deep frown, dark eyes flashing. "I only have antidote for one and only one."

"Then make more!"

"It's not that easy. Making more will take time, and by then they would all be dead. So yes, Frost Born, you will have to choose which of them lives."

"I can't just do that! I can't just…." Her words left her as she began to hyperventilate, arms around her stomach as she battled the pain warring within her; the agony of her desperation and the constant pressure of her power trying to escape as she became more and more emotionally compromised. Her heart thundered behind her rib cage and she wondered if the organ could actually explode from overuse.

"Then you doom them all to die," Orgram declared with a grim finality, folding his arms across his chest.

"How…can you be so…callous?" Saja hiccupped as her tears began to fall, staring down through wavy, watery vision at the bodies of the most precious tings in her life, hands trailing over each. How had things gone so wrong? She'd been happy…by the gods she'd finally found peace!

The troll chief surprised her by barking with cynical laughter that sparked such anger in the Frost Born she almost lost control of her magic and lunged at him. Fang of ice slowly rose around her, the sticky warmth of the valley sucked from the air as her magic began to congeal into a solid form. "These are human children, winter witch. No, they aren't even that, they're half-human, so what love should I have for them or you? What love do any of us have for the human stain on our land?"

"Do not speak of my children as stains, earth dweller," the Frost Born menaced, eyes glowing white, snaking fingers of needle sharp frost climbing the boulder next to her, "when it is your kind who meddle in the affairs of powers beyond your reckoning!"

Orgram saw the spreading ice and snarled, stepping away from the needles stretching towards him, green sparks twinkling at his fingertips. "Do not raise your power in my presence, winter witch! I have little tolerance for you as is, but continue to threaten me and we'll soon see if you are a match for a whole clan of trolls. I imagine you'll only have to kick the hornet's nest once to learn your lesson."

"You insult my family!"

"And your presence on this earth insults me! Lower your magic or we are through and you can watch your precious little pups die tonight!"

Gritting her teeth, Saja pulled hard on her ice and brought it back into herself, extinguishing the glow of her magic from her eyes. Breathing hard, she kept her head lowered in a show of supplication to the troll chief, rage still boiling under her skin, but she would master it if it meant her children could live.

"Forgive me, Orgram, for my insults."

The troll chief snorted and stepped forward once again, but unlike Saja his magic remained dancing on his fingertips as a silent warning should she lose control again. "You are the one who came crawling to me begging for their salvation. Remember that. Not even your blessed mother could help you, could she? Where is Snaer, Saja? Where is your sire right now when you need her most? Asleep, I imagine, and well beyond your reach because the summer season has yet to draw to a close. So you are left with me as your only choice, but you balk at the price. Didn't your human sires teach you to never spit at the feet of someone trying to help?"

Even while watching this heart wrenching drama unfold Elsa felt her cheeks warm with indignant rage. She saw the smugness on the troll chief's face, saw his haughty swagger and the cruelty in his eyes. He was enjoying watching Saja suffer, twisting the knife a little deeper with each word as he tore her down and laid her low.

_This is why she hates them,_ she thought swallowing the lump in her throat.

Body shaking so violently she could hardly lift her hands while bile rose into the back of her throat, Saja swallowed hard and extended a hand towards Orgram, eyes still trained on the fragile forms of her four children: Isien, her youngest daughter, less than a year old, and Jorund, her twin brother; Gyda, her second eldest daughter, only two, and Reinn, her eldest, son of Gunnar and his only living child. These were her legacies, these were her heirs, and they were also her greatest treasures and loves. In them she'd discovered joy unparalleled. In them she'd understood what it truly meant to be a mother, yet here they were, so frail and weak, all because she hadn't sensed the shadow looming ever closer to her happy family.

"Does this mean you accept that three of your four children will die tonight?" Orgram asked, his rough voice carrying across the clearing.

_You bastard_, Elsa raged, body shaking alongside Saja's. _You evil little _bastard!

"Yes," the Frost Born managed to choke out, voice beyond broken.

"Then choose wisely, Frost Born. Squeeze the juice from the moss into one of their mouths and wait. The corruption will leave their body." He handed her a ball of moss from a pouch around his neck and stepped back, joining the ranks of his kin and watching with expectant eyes.

Saja clutched the bundle to her chest and screwed her eyes shut, fearing that if she kept them open her resolve would falter and she'd lose herself to grief and pain. "Frigg," she whispered, bent over the bodies of her little ones, tears spattering the ground and turning into blooms of ice, "mother of Thor and Balder, wife to Odin who sits upon the High Seat, queen of Asgard, hear me. I have not prayed to you in a lifetime, and I know I do not deserve your help or guidance, but please do not begrudge a woman who is about to lose three of the most precious things in her life. Please, guide my children into your hall and welcome them with open arms. They are so small and without stain, surely they will make fine additions to your court. Bless them and treasure them as I have, and forgive me for not being stronger. This sin, I know, will follow me to the grave.

"Snaer, mother, hear me," Saja bit down hard on her inner cheek to keep the sob building in her chest at bay and pressed on. "I have called to you yet you do not answer; I have screamed yet you do not come. Know that three of your grandchildren will cease to exist after this night, and I hate you for it. The Glacier-eyes failed me when I needed them most….you failed me. After this night we are no longer kin. My heart is beyond the point of mending, and I will not forgive your absence. You are dead to me."

Pressing the bundle to Reinn's mouth, Saja squeezed the juice from the moss, trying her hardest not to look at the dying bodies of her other three children. "Ragnar, forgive me," she grated, chest lurching as she attempted to suppress a sob, squeezing until the last of the moss juice dribbled from her icy fingers. "Please, forgive me. Please…"

Reinn suddenly gasped and gagged, arching off the ground and vomiting chunks of greenish-black sludge that stained his lips and neck. Saja turned him over and let the spasm pass, patting his back until he quieted and fell into a deep sleep, color once again rising into his cheeks. She let out a choked laugh as she stroked his thick hair that was in sore need of cutting. Despite his small size he looked so much like Gunnar it almost physically hurt to look at him.

"Hush little one, hush. You're safe now. I'm here." The Frost Born couldn't keep the quiver from her voice as she watched the blackness in her son's neck and chest disappear as the antidote went to work and purged the poison from his body.

"It is done then," Orgram said with a gravely huff and turned away. "One saved at the expense of three. I have done my part, now leave."

"Orgram!" someone snapped in the crowd and pushed their way forward, the onlookers gasping at the use of the chief's untitled name. "Show at least a little compassion for a mother who has just lost her children. Or have you forgotten you are a father as well?"

The troll chief glanced over his rocky shoulder at Pabbie, danger dancing in his dark eyes. But the son of the chief, who was not a young troll any longer, met his sire's blazing glare with a sizzling one of his own. After a tense moment the chief shrugged and sniffed with forced nonchalance.

"Of course, Pabbie. Tend to her if you must. My part in this is done."

"Yes," Pabbie hissed, fists clenched, "many things will come to an end soon."

If the chief heard the threat he did not acknowledge it, trudging away and disappearing into the valley.

"I am sorry," Pabbie said quietly as he came to stand in front of Saja. Needing something to do with his hands, he summoned a thin carpet of moss which he pulled free of its earthen bed and gently laid across the bodies of the three little ones, their lives having snuffed out minutes ago. The Frost Born didn't look up at him or even register his presence or the shroud he'd provided, simply bent in half and pressed her forehead against one of the covered bodies, heart shattering to pieces. She didn't know if she screamed or was simply silent, the storm raging within her smothering everything.

Elsa stood in frozen silence near her ancestor, tears stinging her eyes as she watched the Frost Born sob over her lost loved ones. Nothing could have prepared her for the truth behind Saja's hatred for the trolls, and now she understood why her ancestor despised them so completely. Orgram had enacted the worst kind of cruelty he could, forcing a mother to choose between her children which would live and which would die. It was awful, it was sickening, it was damn near diabolical, and she'd watched it unfold before her like so many of Saja's other past tragedies. The queen closed her eyes and turned away, not wanting to see this anymore but knowing it was still there despite her unwillingness to look.

_Was there no light in my ancestor's life? Was there no happiness?_

Then a more sinister question wormed its way into her mind and she almost vomited with just the thought of it.

_What if Anna had to make that decision? Sweet god, it would destroy her. It would destroy _me.

"I'm sorry," a faint voice said from behind her.

Elsa spun with a startled gasp but wasn't surprised to see her Saja, the woman who'd come to her so many months ago, standing off to the side, eyes locked on the form of her younger self bent over her children. There was pure anguish and shattering guilt burning in her bright blue eyes and a shimmering wetness that bespoke of barely contained tears. She was hugging herself, icy hands wrapped snugly around her waist as she continued to stare with a haunted, desolated look.

"Sorry for what?" Elsa asked lamely, unsure what to do or say; torn between wanting to wrap her ancestor in a crushing hug or keep her distance out of respect.

"That you had to see this. I didn't want this memory to touch you, but with the Glacier-eye in you there was a strong chance you'd tap into my memories that are connected to the troll territory."

Elsa blinked in shocked surprise and looked down at herself. "I'm in the troll territory, and I have a Glacier-eye in me?" Brow scrunched with confusion, she look back up at her ancestor. "What…_is_ that exactly?"

"A healing stone my mother made for me when I was young," Saja answered mechanically, still watching her younger self. She was quiet for a long time, just watching and remembering. "This day will forever haunt me. Even in death, I can't escape it."

"I…I'm…Saja, I can't say it enough. I'm so sorry for what happened."

"Now you understand why I can't and won't trust them."

"I do. Orgram was filth," Elsa spat, fists clenched. "I hope his time as chief was a short one."

A thin, mirthless smile touched Saja's lips. "I made sure he was the first to die."

"You killed him?" Elsa frowned, somehow realizing she'd already suspected this but found it no less shocking.

"What you are seeing is only half the memory," Saja explained dryly. "Orgram was the one who poisoned my children."

The queen gasped, hand clapping over her mouth. "_What_?" she hissed through her fingers, feeling her face grow pale.

"I was told much later of his betrayal by Pabbie after he'd defected from his sire's clan. Orgram had made a deal with a clergyman who I'd permitted to live in my kingdom. How the troll and holy man came together is unknown to me, but they both despised me and plotted mine and my family's demise. My children were the first to die because Orgram believed it would weaken me and leave me vulnerable. He gave the poison to the holy man who slipped it into their food." Saja took a rattling breath and steadied herself, blinking away her tears. "What the troll chief didn't realize was that a handful of his trolls saw this deal he'd made with the clergyman as a breech in their laws, so they left, and Pabbie sought me out."

"He told you the truth?"

"He told me everything," Saja sighed, remembering how she'd nearly killed him, "but it was already too late. The clergyman had run from my kingdom the very night he'd poisoned my children, fearing the trolls would betray him. And he was right to have run. My rage was the likes of which this world has never seen and probably will never see again."

"You and your husband must have been devastated," Elsa whispered, watching the memory run its course before dissolve into shift gray mist once again.

"Ragnar was broken by the loss of his children."

"They weren't all Gunnar's?"

Saja smiled thinly again. "No, only Reinn, my eldest, was Gunnar's. The other three were Ragnar's."

"You married him after Gunnar's death," the queen stated rather than asked.

"I did. Shortly after Gunnar died I discovered I was with child. Though it wasn't uncommon for a widowed woman in my culture to raise a child on her own, Ragnar would not hear it and had me marry him. It wasn't as if he forced my hand; I saw the wisdom in our union and the benefits it could give me and my child. It was a union of convenience, but it slowly grew into something more as the years passed. I learned to love him and he, in turn, gave me a family. We were happy for a time…perhaps too happy."

"Did…" Elsa swallowed, not sure this was the right thing to ask. "Did Ragnar help you hunt the trolls?"

The Frost Born chuckled dryly, whipping at her eyes. "No, Elsa, he did not. Though the death of his children pained him greatly, Ragnar was a logical man who realized long before I did that, though we'd lost three precious lives, we still had Reinn. My husband adopted his nephew and raised him as his own, but I was too overcome with grief and rage to realize I still had a husband who loved me and a child who needed a mother. I was blind and a fool and let my hatred consume me."

"You're only human, Saja. I don't know any mother who wouldn't have reacted the same way," Elsa soothed.

"I am not entirely human. I am the daughter of Snaer," Saja said turning to look at the queen, blue eyes glinting like chips of lake ice. "I waited for the weather to turn cold then started hunting. I am a weapon and I used my lethality to murder the innocent. I wanted Orgram dead alongside the holy man, but more than those two fell to my blade. Blinded by my anger and the need for revenge, I slaughtered most of the troll chief's clan."

"And the clergyman?"

"I did not find him until years later, but yes, even he fell to my blade."

The two were silent for a long time after Saja's tale, both women lost in dark thoughts. Eventually, the first Frost Born roused herself and shook the blanket of pain and loss from her shoulders, turning instead to speak to the queen.

"So," she began with forced cheer, "you certainly tried your hardest to die this day. I must commend you on your efforts. You fought hard and gained much."

"I lost more than I gained," Elsa whispered sadly, remembering the bolt in Revel's chest and the blood on his hands. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried hard not to let herself be swept away by the tidal wave of grief threatening to swallow her.

_At least I got to see him one last time,_ she thought morosely, hand clutching her chest. _I got to see him smile._

"You killed the men who threatened you and your family. That is a great victory."

"Exactly…I killed someone. It's…" Elsa's breath hitched and she took a moment to steady herself. No matter how many times she fought it she could still see Fritz choking to death as her ice consumed him, could see the fear in his bulging eyes as he thrashed like a fish on a hook. "It wasn't something I ever wanted."

"Sometimes we must do everything we can in order to protect the things we love," Saja said quietly.

"You're right, we do, but that doesn't mean I can be okay with it. I look a life, Saja. Fritz might have been trying to kill me, but he was also a human just like me with flaws and strengths and someone who loved him. His actions were just misguided and twisted, but I can't help but wonder if I had let him live could he have changed his ways and been a better person? What if me killing him was a mistake?" Elsa wrapped her arms around her waist, much like Saja had, and hunched. "I feel so much guilt swirling within me I'm afraid I'm going to implode."

Saja surprised the queen by approaching her and taking her face gently between her icy hands and staring hard into her cerulean orbs. "This is a hard lesson to learn, Elsa, but it is an important one, and one I'll teach you like Gunnar taught me. When in combat you must forget that the person you're fighting is human. You have to forget or push aside any guilt you might feel towards taking a life because in that moment someone is trying to take _your_ life. He might not share your sentiments; he might not even care or see you as a person. The fact that you still saw him as a human is a good sign— you won't ever kill unnecessarily— but if it comes down to you or him, your life is more precious. You _family_ is more precious. Never forget that."

Forced to look at her ancestor, Elsa realized that the light burning in Saja's eyes was such powerful compassion and conviction it momentarily stilled the raging maelstrom inside her and cause her to go still. The first Frost Born surprised her again by pressing her forehead against hers and closing her eyes, the two sharing a quiet moment of reflection before she spoke again. "When I came to you some months ago I called you weak, but I see now that I was mistaken. You are simply young, Elsa Frosberg, with your whole life ahead of you and many more lessons to learn. I am proud to call you my descendant, and I'm proud of the woman you have and will become because I can see now that there is more strength in you than I previously thought."

"I…" Elsa struggled to find something to say, but the unexpected complement momentarily numbed her tongue, so she simply said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Saja replied stepping back with a warm smile that seemed to peel away the years and make her shine with an internal beauty. For the first time since their meeting in Elsa's chambers, the queen caught a glimpse of woman beyond the stoic, hardened mask of the warrior queen to the mother and lover underneath. Saja smiled once more before she broke eye contact and glanced around as if hearing something. "It's time for you to go back."

"Back to where?"

"Your body," Saja chuckled, canting her head curiously to one side. "Back to your kingdom and your lover, of course."

At the mention of Revel, Elsa hung her head and looked off into the mist, aching to see him one more time before she awoke. If Saja could relive her memories in a place like this maybe the queen could too. But she had a sick feeling the memory that would replay would be the moment of his death, because that, like Fritz's death, still wouldn't leave her in peace. She could still hear the thud of the crossbow bolt sinking into his flesh and his pained exhale as the shaft bit deep. She could still feel him fall back against her, body sagging as his consciousness faded. Elsa had felt the bolt with her own hand even as she struggled to hold him, willing him to live even before he'd jumped in front of the death that had meant to be hers. Revel had always been adamant that her magic would never fail her, but it had in the worst way possible.

_I tried to push you away when I realized what you were about to do. Why wasn't I strong enough to save your life like you did mine? Why am I always the one who needs saving?_

The Frost Born saw the forlorn look on her descendants face and frowned, confusion creasing her brow. "Do you not wish to see him?"

"I want more than anything to see him," Elsa whispered fiercely, hands clenching to tight fists at her sides.

"Then return to your body."

"He's dead. I saw him die in my arms…"

"You…" Suddenly Saja understood and a wide smile spread across her face. Elsa saw it and only had a moment to wonder at it before two of the Frost Born's icy fingers touched her creased forehead, smoothing out the wrinkles as she lightly pushed her backwards. "Go back. You have so much more life to live, and we'll speak again soon."

Before Elsa could answer she felt the ground under her give way and was falling before she could draw breath to scream, tumbling head over heels into darkness with no hope of knowing up from down until she landed.

* * *

><p>The queen blinked awake with a sudden, sharp gasp, consciousness buoying her back to the surface of existence at lightning speed. Breathing in, Elsa felt her chest expand and whimpered at the pain, tears slipping out of the corner of her sore eyes. The dull ache of her body suddenly became a consuming, fiery throb that intensified with every breath she dragged in. Everything hurt: her eyes felt crusty and grainy; her neck was raw and her chest felt like it had been smashed into pieces and glued back together with acid. Her left side and back throbbed, volcanic agony pulsing under her bandages with each beat of her heart. Raising a trembling hand, she attempted to touch her torso but couldn't manage it, the pain alone enough to make her nauseous. Elsa coughed and swallowed hard, her throat like a wasteland. Even her scalp pulsed with tingling warmth as if someone had brushed her hair with a wire comb. And to make matters worse, for a terrifying moment she thought she'd gone blind. Her eyes were open but all she could see was pitch black darkness in all directions.<p>

Lying as still as possible, Elsa blinked a few more times and squinted into the blackness as hard as she could, willing her vision to return. Eventually, her sore eyes began to adjust to the gloom and she noticed with a rush of relief she was staring up at a granite ceiling. Throwing her senses further and focusing on her breathing, she relaxed as much as possible and realized she was lying on a soft bed of furs, the follicles sliding like silk between her fingers. A pillow rested under her head, firm but comfortable and oddly smelling like her sister. There was a blanket over her legs that stopped at her waist where the bandages began.

_Bandages?_

Lifting her head took far more effort than she thought it would, but Elsa was now able to see she was wrapped from waist to shoulder in rough wool bandages that overlapped the other in an expert bind. They smelled sweet, or something under them did, and were snug enough she could move if she wanted while keeping her wounds firmly shut.

_Someone wrapped me in bandages…_she thought, mind still slightly sluggish. _So am I back in the castle or…_

A gentle breeze touched her cheek, and Elsa turned towards the sound of fluttering fabric. The first rays of a soft gray dawn were peeking through the gap in the curtain drawn across the entrance of the rock shelter, and she suddenly realized where she was.

_I'm in Pabbie's valley. That's right…Saja said I was with the trolls._

The thought of her ancestor immediately snapped her out of her haze. She was in the troll territory, but how? The last thing she remembered was Adrek's hands around her throat and then him screaming and letting her go. Then Revel…

At about the same moment her memory caught up with her, Elsa happened to look down and saw a dark lump lying beside her, and her heart dropped into her stomach. "No," she whimpered softly, attempting to roll towards him. She couldn't see him clearly because of the darkness of the room she occupied, but Revel lay on his side facing her, face slack and body relaxed. In the gray light of morning he looked so peaceful it was almost impossible to come to terms with the fact that she was looking at his corpse. Tears stung her eyes, making them ache all the more, but she let them fall as she reached for him, terrified she'd find him cold but needed to at least touch him one final time.

_You fool, _she thought, struggling to keep her hand steady as it shook from trepidation and pain, _why couldn't you have just stayed in the room or run when the castle came down. Why'd you have to jump in front of me? Why are you dead and I'm alive?_

"I'm so sorry, Revel," she hissed, gritting her teeth. "I never wanted any of this to happen. I never asked for you to sacrifice yourself for me. Why couldn't you have just lis—"

Her cold hand touched his warm arm and he came to life with a sudden, sharp jolt, sufficiently startling the queen. Elsa jerked away with a ragged gasp, scrambling back out of reflex until her battered body expressed its displeasure in a chorus of volcanic shouts. The earth tilting dangerously under her, she stared in petrified terror, heart jumping from her stomach to her throat in a tremendous leap and right hand extended in an effort to ward off the wraith of her lover.

Revel stared at her, blinking away the haze of sleep and tired confusion. Then the biggest smile she'd ever seen suddenly broke across his face once he realized this wasn't some perverse dream, but his joy at seeing his beloved awake quickly faded when he saw the utter terror on her face. Slowly he edged towards her, holding out his own hands in a gesture of reassurance. "Elsa, it's me. Calm down, love; it's just—"

He abruptly stopped when she suddenly grabbed ahold of his arm with surprising strength and began touching him all over, hands working over his chest and shoulders before cupping his face. Her fingers moved along the edge of his jaw and the coarse stubble there, across the bridge of his nose, tracing the familiar lines of his features like a blind man reading brail for the first time. Her eyes were fiercely bright, almost fevered, as she stared hard at him as if at any moment she expected to blink and he'd be gone. Her breath was ragged and labored, washing across his face in cold waves until it finally hitched and a tight, raspy sob of, "You're alive," broke free seconds before the lances pain driving into her chest, back, and side became too much and she sagged into him.

"Hey, hey, I've got you," Revel soothed, catching her and gently laying her back down. "Be still and just breathe. I'll be right back."

He attempted to rise but Elsa had a firm grip on his hand and wouldn't let go. Revel stopped and knelt beside her, noting the sweat starting to bead along her hairline. His warm palm cupped her cool cheek and he smiled again, relief plain on his face. "I'm just going to go get you some water. I won't be gone long."

Not reassured in the least, Elsa fought to release her grip and let her hand drop. Revel flashed her one final smile before ducking out of the room and disappearing. He couldn't have been gone more than five minutes but already the queen was slipping back into the hazy depths of fever-sleep, her body a coiling mass of agony. Never in her life had she experienced this level of pain. It drew out every minute to an eternity, slowing the passage of time and leaving her numb to anything aside from an allover throb. Revel returned, sliding back first through the rawhide curtain and carefully setting a tray laden with earthenware pots, two cups, and an assortment of nuts, fruits, berries and vegetables. He carefully set the tray down and scooted close to her, eyes bright in the dim light. The curtain moved again, a slash of grey morning flashing past, as someone else entered the room. Elsa squinted at the small figure, wavy vision making it difficult to tell who it was.

"Belluma?" she frowned, voice barely above a hoarse whisper.

"I…" the troll pulled up short, mouth hanging open. "How do you know that name?"

Elsa shook her head but her mind was a muddled mess and the sharp movement only served to stir the muddiness even more. She groaned and coughed, wishing desperately she had something to—

"Here, drink this." Revel lifted her head and pressed a small cup to her lips. At first Elsa tried to show some semblance of decorum but her liquid starved body proved too dry and she threw etiquette out the wind, drinking greedily after the first few sips, streams of water dribbling out of the corners of her mouth.

"Easy love, easy. There's plenty here. Don't choke yourself," Revel said softly, carefully lifting the cup so as to not allow her to drink too much all at once.

The first couple of glasses had no taste, just the blissful balm of cold mountain water soothing the wasteland that was her throat. After the third cup, Elsa began to taste a sweetness in the water, the liquid flavored with something that wasn't altogether unpleasant. It had a citrus note to it, something akin to oranges, with strawberry and a few other flavors she couldn't identify. Still, it was no matter. The water seemed to be doing the trick and she felt her body begin to relax, the fire in her mouth and throat extinguished along with some other pleasant side effects. The constant screaming torture of her wounds were quickly fading into blissful numbness. Elsa became dimly aware that the troll she'd mistaken for Belluma, who was instead Bulda, had plopped down next to Revel and was proceeding to mix and grind different herbs in an ancient-looking mortar. She caught the queen looking at her and smiled warmly, but didn't stop her grinding.

"Rest now, Elsa. You'll feel better once you've let your body sleep a little longer."

The queen tried to object, she really didn't want to sleep— but oh, it felt so good to finally breathe again without being in constant agony. Eyes sliding lazily over to Revel, she held his gaze for a few seconds longer, the fingers of her extended left hand entwined with his, before the tea took full affect and pulled her into a peaceful, blissfully dreamless sleep.

"We'll have her rest a little while longer while you change her bandages," Bulda explained as Revel reluctantly untangled his fingers from Elsa's and went to work. To his great and relieved surprise her wounds were healing nicely, only a hint of redness around some of the stitching. He applied the paste Bulda had been mixing with steady hands, all the while watching his beloved slumber peacefully. An hour later he was done, stepping out of the room with Bulda as the first true rays of sunlight hit the valley and began burning away the customary morning mist.

"How long will she sleep?" he asked, stretching his back and trying to suppress a loud growl from his stomach. He'd not eaten in almost three days.

Bulda chuckled and waved to the tray still inside the room with enough food for him and Elsa to share. "She drank three full cups of slumber-tea, so she should be asleep for most of the morning if not some of the afternoon depending on how quickly her body is healing. But you, dear one, need to go in and eat something before you faint. You're thin enough as is…the both of you are."

"I don't want to disturb her," he said with great reluctance, glancing back at the rock-shelter. He couldn't understand why she'd been so startled to see him. Maybe it had just been confusion brought on by pain, but he couldn't help but feel something tug at his soul when she'd realized he was actually there with her and not dead. _You're alive,_ she'd choked, and the relief in her eyes was nothing short of witnessing a miracle happen.

"Then you are welcome to eat with the rest of us. Pabbie will have already risen by now and started the morning songs," Bulda explained, walking towards a cluster of tall boulders with blue spirals etched into the stone.

"He sings?" Revel asked curiously, following the troll-mother.

"He does, but it's not in the fashion you humans are familiar with. Every morning at sunrise, Pabbie sings to our earth-mother and thanks her for providing us with another safe night and asks her to grant us a prosperous day. He also sings to the sky-father and thanks him for moving the moon across the heavens and bringing back the sun," the little troll explained, leading the former captain into the cluster of stones which was larger than Revel anticipated. Most of the clan seemed to be in attendance, sitting in a tight circle around Pabbie who sat at the center. Each troll rested their hands on the shoulder of a clan member in front of them, creating a matrix of interwoven arms that ended with the troll closest to Pabbie pushing their stony fingers into the earth.

Bulda found a place at the back of the congregation and sat, pulling Revel down next to her. A few trolls turned to look at him, curious as to why he was here, but a sharp look from the troll-mother quickly turned them back around. Bulda reached out and touched the shoulders of the clansmen in front of her and nodded for Revel to do the same.

"This won't take long. After Pabbie's song we'll grab some food and head back to Kristoff's quarters," she whispered.

Revel hesitantly copied the little troll, placing his hands top the shoulders of the troll in front of him. He felt a small spark of something race up his fingers and shivered but refused to let go lest he insult them. Allowing himself a chance to relax, Revel closed his eyes and exhaled, opening himself to the troll chief's song that carried across the clustered mass of hunched and silent stone figures in lilting, rhythmic baritones. It took him a moment to realize Pabbie wasn't simply humming notes but actually speaking in a language not remotely human. There was power in each note, tendrils of something never before felt by the former captain snaking through the crowd and making the snowflake brand on his chest tingle and itch.

Eyes closed, he could feel the push and pull of foreign power like an ocean tide, gentle fingers both warm and cold brushing his exposed skin and making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He likened the sensation to a smith's bellows blowing fresh air on hot coals in order to heat them to a desired degree. Suddenly he could smell the rich scent of earth and pine, the heady flavor of the forest sticking to the roof of his mouth and the back of his tongue. The ground under him hummed, vibrations working up his crossed legs and climbing his spine until it enveloped his head like a crown. The sensation was both electrifying and startling. Revel could feel himself getting lost in Pabbie's song, the notes carrying him away to an unfamiliar place. Something prompted him to open his eyes, and he obediently complied, not prepared for what he was about to see.

The little clearing was alive with color, each troll engulfed in snapping flames that matched the fierce glow of the jewels hanging around their necks. As the troll chief continued to sing, the song growing in pitch and beat, the flames soared higher and began to spin, a rainbow of color turning like a slow whirlpool with Pabbie as the glowing, golden nucleus at the center. Faster and faster they spun until they were a muddied blur swirling too fast for the eye to see. Revel stared in open mouthed wonder, expecting to feel the effects of the whirlpool like a harsh wind or a powerful current but instead only feeling a steady pulsing like hundreds of hearts beating together in a synced tempo. He was shocked to find his own heart joining the rhythm, syncing with the rest of the congregation with effortless ease.

Suddenly the song hit a high, clear note and the spiraling vortex of color shot skyward with a rush that the former captain actually did feel as it moved the hair off his shoulders and left him gaping. The pillar of light capped off into a swirling dome some ways above him, light and color still spinning and mixing in a dizzying frenzy. Hand's still resting on the shoulders of the trolls in front of him, he glanced down and saw that his snowflake brand was aglow, color suffusing his shirt and shining through the fabric. It joined with the other colors, melding with the flow, and with a remarkable revelation he realized he could understand the troll chief, his words transcending the language barrier and piercing Revel to the soul.

_When up turns to down_

_ And sky becomes ground_

_ We rise, we rise, we rise_

_ When earth-mother sings_

_ In halls of forest and king_

_ We rise, we rise, we rise_

_ When sky-father rides_

_ Great steeds across the sky_

_ Earth-children raise your voice_

_ For in the in between day_

_ When light turns to grey_

_ And power comes as a choice_

_ Let the earth-children know_

_ The seed has been sown_

_ So we rise, we rise, we rise_

Multiple times the troll chief recited this chant, his low voice carrying an echo of power causing the swirling vortex of color to ripple and shift like fingers moving across the surface of water. Revel felt Pabbie's voice move through him, piercing marrow and soul alike, an electric current that settled under his brand and filled him with such warmth and fervor he felt as if he were going to overload. He didn't know if it was simply his imagination or something else, but he watched a shape form within the whirlpool of light and color: limbs, torso, shoulder and head pulling together like smoke trapped in a bottle. It was vaguely human but obviously feminine, with wide hips and ample breasts all cast in colorful silhouette. The being, whatever it was, silently strode through the troll masses, lingering near a few before moving on, and all the while Revel felt like at any moment he was going to disconnect from the earth and fly off into space. Having never been a religious man he'd never experienced a truly spiritual moment, but here with the trolls, watching this otherworldly being move among these mythical creatures, he felt his awe and amazement like a tidal wave crashing against a steadfast mountain. Unable to close his eyes, he felt tears trail down his cheeks, heart slamming behind his ribcage as the colors began to brighten into an intense blue before disappearing altogether in a blinding flash that left him dizzy and lightheaded. It was unclear how long he'd sat gasping, but Bulda's gentle touch brought him back around and he leveled wide eyes on her, hands shaking so violently he had to set them in his lap. The troll-mother was eyeing him closely, head canted to one side.

"You saw her, didn't you?" she eventually asked, a small smile splitting her face.

At first he was unable to form words, but eventually Revel managed to squeak out, "Who's…_her_?"

"The earth-mother," Bulda replied with a kind smile, the first kind smile Revel had seen directed towards him since he'd entered the troll territory with Elsa early yesterday morning.

"W-Was she— is she a…goddess?"

"You humans have always sought to label things in order to better understand. She is simply the earth-mother, bearing no name or title in our language. She is all and everything, not a physical being but rather a spirit that resides within the very essence of the earth and all that tread upon her land."

"But…I…" Revel took a breath to steady himself and unconsciously laid a hand over the snowflake brand and felt a flutter against his palm almost like a secondary heartbeat.

"Come, dear one. We need to get you some food. You look white as a sheet."

Revel clambered to his feet, aware that most of the trolls had already left the clearing. He glanced over his shoulder to where Pabbie had sat and saw trails of freshly bloomed white and blue flowers trailing around the stone grove, following the path the spirit had walked. Shaking his head, he followed Bulda back to the rock shelter. The little troll had ducked inside the room and retrieved the tray, setting it between them as she sat heavily against one of the stone slabs, feet stretched out before her.

"Eat, eat," she prompted, scooting a bowl filled with mixed fruits and nuts towards Revel. He graciously accepted it with a nod and popped a few berries into his mouth, trying hard not to shovel a whole handful down his throat. He really was quite hungry.

"If you're anything like my son you'll have an appetite like a bear going into hibernation," Bulda laughed, munching happily on what looked like a piece of root she'd fetched before heading back to the rock shelter.

"I bet it was all the nuts and berries that made Kristoff into a giant," Revel remarked conversationally when the two had fallen into a fragile silence. He still wasn't sure of what he'd seen, but for the moment he was willing to just let it go so he could focus on the more pressing issues at hand.

"I can tell you, feeding that child was a clan effort," the troll-mother sighed, continuing to munch on her root. "We're plant eaters, you see, but humans' need both to survive. So finding adequate food for Kristoff was a challenge when he was younger. Luckily, the other ice harvesters seemed to form an attachment to him and taught him how to hunt and fish in the proper seasons."

"You don't eat meat?" Revel asked, genuinely curious. He also wanted to know why the mountain man had been raised solely by trolls and not with a normal, human family but figured that was probably too personal a topic for someone who was still considered an outsider.

"We respect the land and all living things," Bulda explained patiently. "That means eating things grown solely from the earth and leaving the living creatures alone. That is our practice which isn't often shared amongst the humans. Your bodies need meat to survive, so Kristoff had to learn how to hunt at a young age."

"And it never bothered you that he was eating a living creature?"

"Not when I know that creature gave its life in order to allow my boy to live," Bulda answered with a firmness that alluded to many arguments waged on behalf of her adopted son's need to eat things other than roots and berries.

Revel finished off his bowl of nuts and fruit and started on another filled with assorted vegetables and mushrooms. After a moment, he decided to venture further into the depths of personal conversation, testing the waters, so-to-speak. "So…was it strange raising a human child?"

"There were…marked differences," Bulda admitted after giving Revel a shrew look that lead him to believe he'd overstepped his bounds. "There are marked differences between trolls and humans, namely the fact that you all are so susceptible to illness and chills. I learned very quickly how to keep Kristoff warm and how to treat him when he got sick or hurt himself…which was often," Bulda mumbled with a rueful smile.

"Sick or injured?"

"Both, really. We trolls are heavy creatures and sometimes we forget how frail flesh and bone bodies are. That's why we built this room for him." The troll-mother gave the granite wall she sat behind a fond pat. "That and it was a place he could bring and bed Anna-dear in private."

Revel felt a flush working into his cheeks and coughed to cover his embarrassment. Picturing Anna in a…sexual setting, even if it was with her husband, wasn't something he wanted on his mind. "She's a lucky woman to have found a man like him," he managed.

"We think the opposite," Bulda laughed. "It's Kristoff who was the lucky one. We were so ecstatic when he brought her here the first time. My little boy had found a girl!"

There was something in the way she'd said it that made Revel curious as to whether or not Bulda was glad her son had found a mate or whether he'd found a woman instead of a man. "Did you…expect him to bring home someone else?"

"Well…" Bulda waffled, wincing slightly, "if he _had_ we'd have loved him none-the-less. Humans have such strange boundaries when it comes to who and what you love, but I really wanted grandchildren. Ever since his mushroom grew and his stones dropped, I've been hoping for grandbabies." Bulda cracked a wide grin, eyes lost in a memory. "Ah, I remember the day he came to me and Pabbie because he'd grown his first mushroom…only we realized it wasn't really a mushroom swinging between his legs but a tree bough."

Revel snorted and choked on his tea, coughing the bits of inhaled liquid out of his lungs. "I…I umm…yeah, I'm going to have to take your word on that," he managed to wheeze out. Bulda cackled and rocked back laughing, Revel joining her in a chuckle after he'd recovered. There really was no comeback to a statement like that, so he kept his mouth shut and enjoyed the warm sensation of proper food in his system.

"Well, I need to be off to check on a few things. I'll send for one of my sister trolls to keep watch while you head for a bath," Bulda said, grunting as she rose to her feet.

"Do I smell that bad?" Revel laughed, sniffing his shirt only to cough and recoil at his own stench.

"Judging by the look on your face, _you_ can even smell you," she chuckled. "Put on the tunic and pants I gave you last night. While you were sleeping, I took them in a bit so they should fit you better."

"Thank you, Bulda."

The troll-mother nodded and headed off, leaving Revel alone outside the rock shelter. Taking a few minutes to check on Elsa, he ducked inside and found her sleeping peacefully. The heat had faded from her cheeks and she seemed to be a shade less pale, both good indications of her rapid recovery which he contributed to the Glacier-eye. Eventually a squat female troll with multiple green jewels around her neck and a crop of mushrooms growing off her shoulders arrived and showed Revel to where the hot springs were located. Nothing more spectacular than steaming holes in the ground with a few rocks clustered at the edges, he undressed and washed quickly, fighting the urge to remain in the blissfully hot water for as long as possible but not wanting to remain away from Elsa for too long. Still, it was refreshing to remove the days of sweat and stress from his skin and hair, scrubbing it away with a lump of fragrant moss provided by his troll guide.

When he returned to the rock shelter, dressed in borrowed clothes that were still a bit too large and hair still damp, the female troll departed without a word and he slid down next to his beloved, content on watching her sleep. He didn't realize he'd begun to doze, more relaxed from his bath than he previously thought, until the sound of movement awakened him sometime later and he opened his eyes to find Elsa remarkably sitting up, back pressed against the wall of the stone room. For a scant couple of seconds he remained still, simply watching her, silently marveling at the progress her body had made in only a day. The beating she'd undergone should have seen her bedridden for weeks with no guarantee she would have recovered without permanent scarring or disablement. Yet here she was, sitting up when more than one rib had been broken, her sternum fractures, her side slashed and back flayed open.

_If I didn't believe it before, I do now. There really is true magic in this world far beyond my comprehending._

"You drugged me," were her first words, and for a heart stopping moment Revel thought she was angry at him until she glanced his way and he saw that the corners of her mouth were turned up. He suppressed a relieved sigh and waved his hand airily.

"Ah, well, I see I've been caught red-handed. It was for your own good you know, the drugging and all," he replied, jacking himself up on his elbow. From this angle he could see that the livid bruising around her throat had faded to a pale yellow spotted here and there with small blooms of brown, the skin almost completely healed.

"You just wanted me prone and at your mercy," Elsa sniffed indignantly, her smile growing wider as she absentmindedly played with a few loose strands of hair.

"I just wanted you well," he answered seriously, rising to his knees and taking her face in his hands. Her smile faded as she too became serious, leaning into his touch as her eyes searched his face. Revel kissed her gently, careful not to press too firmly in case her wounds still ached, which judging by the ginger way she moved they did, but she returned his embrace with a fierce one of her own, drawing herself closer to him. For a breathless handful of seconds they remained locked together, both forcing themselves to realize this was real and not some perverse, cruel dream. It had to be done, for both Revel and Elsa had believed they'd lost the other and craved physical reassurance. They made sure the press of their lips was real; the heat and softness of the other's skin was real; the smell and taste and overall sensation of their close proximity was real. Eventually the two broke away for air but kept their foreheads pressed together—his hands resting on her neck and her hands tangled in the fabric of his shirt.

"I thought I'd lost you," Revel whispered, tears pricking his eyes. He distantly wondered if there'd ever be a point when he'd stop crying.

"For a minute there, you did," Elsa replied just as quietly and tearfully, an admission that tore at her soul .

"Because of me," he rasped, drawing back, eyes averted. "None of this would have happened had I—"

"No," Elsa said firmly, a finger pressed against his lips. "I'm not going to sit here and let you wallow in guilt. The fault is to be shared between the both of us. One is not above the other."

"But I—"

"No. No buts about it, do you understand? I forgive you a thousand times over and a thousand times more. And I hope you can forgive me as well."

"Of course I do," he urged. "I still don't believe any of this was your fault."

"We have differing opinions then, but I'm glad you forgive me." Then more quietly she added, "If we are to be together we have to learn to share the blame."

Revel felt an explosion of warmth bloom in his chest like a firework and pulled her close, burying his face in the crook of her neck and trying hard not to squeeze her. "I love you; from here till the end of time."

"And I you," she said, leaning back to kiss him once more, but stopped when her fingers slid over a few raised lines on his chest. Confused, she looked down. "What is…?" When the lines began to glow faintly under her touch she gasped and leaned closer. "_What is that?_"

"It's better if I show you," Revel explained quickly and pulled off his tunic, watching Elsa's eyes grow large at the sight of the snowflake brand.

"That's…the snowflake I made for you at Christmas," she whispered and realized in a sudden rush that the mark sat exactly where the crossbow bolt had hit him. "How is this possible…I felt the shaft hit you."

"I don't know how it happened either," he admitted, trying to fill the void that preceded stunned amazement. "I remember feeling the bolt hit me and knocking the wind out of me, but somehow it never pierced my skin. I didn't even realize the snowflake was there until Pabbie had me take off my shirt after I brought you here. He said you branded me. Well, not exactly _branded._ This is the troll jewel you had me wear. It somehow mixed with your power." Revel realized he was doing a horrible job at explaining what had happened, and there was no wondering why. He didn't even fully understand it himself.

"Troll magic and ice magic can't mix," Elsa breathed, remembering Saja's words.

"Pabbie said the same thing, but apparently it can when love is thrown into the mix."

Elsa looked up from her staring, unsure if he was being ironic or serious. "Is that how they explained it? Love?"

"Actually, yes. Those were Pabbie's words exactly."

Sitting back, the queen let her fingers trail over the mark, watching with rapt fascination as the snowflake glittered and shimmered under her touch. It was warm, like his skin, but under the surface Elsa could feel the gentle thrum of her magic. If she concentrated, she could sense the mark like two magnets moved close together, her power reaching for Revel and wanting to connect with him. But there was also a wild kind of power imbedded within, like bottled springtime. It coiled around her arctic magic, the two balanced in near perfect harmony. She knew nothing like this would ever exist again, at least created by her hand, so she let her marvel show, fingers memorizing each facet and curl.

"It's beautiful."

"Because you made it," Revel said softly, pressing her palm against the brand with his hand. Elsa started and jumped a little, glancing at her left shoulder. The former captain frowned, brow wrinkling. "Is something wrong?"

"No," she breathed then laughed: a pure, clear sound that raised goosebumps across Revel's skin. "I feel…I don't know how to explain it. My brand feels warm." She used her free hand to touch her own mark just to be sure.

"Doesn't it always?"

"No, usually it's cold, but when I'm touching you," she looked over at his chest then back to her shoulder, "it feels warm. I think I'm feeling you."

"Well of course you are. Your hands are pressed against my chest," Revel teased with a wide smile. Elsa gently shoved him, rolling her eyes. He mimed being pushed by someone with considerable strength, over-exaggerating his fall and pulling his beloved down with him in slow motion. He eased her to a stop, mindful of her healing body, and smiled up at her, fingers running through her unbound, platinum locks and massaging her scalp. Elsa closed her eyes and lay against him, her own cool fingers still tracing the mark on his chest.

"Mmmm, that feels good," she purred, relaxing further.

"I'm glad," Revel smiled, delighted in the security of her weight against his body and the scent of her filling his nose. She was his and she was alive, two miracles he'd never thought could happen.

"Revel," Elsa said after a while, palm coming to a rest over the mark on his chest. "What happened inside my ice palace and the journey here? I remember so little…"

He was quiet for a long time, torn between telling her the truth or giving her a general explanation of what happened. Truth eventually won over convenience, and he sighed deeply, not wanting to relive those terrifying moment when he'd been so sure he'd lost her for good.

"You were badly injured, Elsa. I'm not surprised you don't remember much."

"I thought I saw Kristoff. Was I imagining that?"

"No, he was there. He brought Sigmund and a small regiment of guards with him. It was your brother-in-law who shot Adrek and killed him."

"I'm sorry," she whispered, genuinely aggrieved for his loss.

"Don't be," Revel sighed, stroking her shoulder with his thumb. "I buried my brother years ago. Anyway, you were losing a lot of blood and fading in and out when I got to you. The castle was coming down, so I followed Kristoff and Sigmund out to there your sister was waiting." At the mention of Anna, Elsa sat up a bit too quickly and hissed at the sudden, tugging pain in her back as the stitches pulled tight. "Hey, easy love. Try not to move too quickly."

Elsa waved him off, pushing past the pain so she could look at him. "I'm fine. Why was Anna there?"

Revel looked unconvinced but didn't push the issue. "I didn't ask, but I assume she came with her husband and the guards. We put you in the sled but—" he cut off mid-sentence, mind returning to snowy plateau where Sebastian knelt with the queen in his arms, a forlorn look on his face. Pressing his lips together, Revel pressed on, aware his love was watching him with intent eyes. "One of the guards who accompanied Sigmund was a medic. He informed us that you had lost too much blood and wouldn't make it down the mountain. And he was right. Kristoff told the company he knew a place to take you, but on the way there you stopped breathing. I worked to get your heart beating again and succeeded, but for a few terrifying minutes I thought I'd never see you again."

Elsa lay back down, digesting what he'd just told her. She'd technically died coming down the mountain but he'd brought her back. "You saved me twice."

"I couldn't lose you," he rasped, rolling her onto her right side so he could better see her face. "I couldn't let you go."

"I'm here," she smiled, gripping his hand tightly. "I'm safe."

"Now you are, but in the beginning, when we brought you to Pabbie, it wasn't clear if he'd be able to help. He couldn't touch you in order to heal you."

At this bit of information, Elsa frowned deeply. "Why?"

Revel brushed the cascade of her platinum hair aside and touched the handprint brand on her shoulder, feeling a slight tingle in his fingers when he did. "Because of this. Saja marked you with her magic which meant the trolls couldn't touch you. Bulda tried and your power threw her back." Elsa said nothing, just covered where Revel's hand rested on her brand with her own. "Pabbie thought that was the end. According to him, you were bleeding internally, and without anything to heal you, you were going to die. But then this huge ice hawk showed up and things became…strange."

"Himmelen?" Elsa perked up, remembering Saja's icy companion.

"I think that was his name. My mind goes a little fuzzy here because somehow Saja managed to connect with me through this mark on my chest and spoke to the trolls. She told them to use the Glacier-eye Himmelen had to heal you, but only I could touch it."

"So it was Saja who gave you the Glacier-eye?"

Revel nodded. "She left after delivering her message, and I put the eye in you while starting the process of stitching you up."

"Ah, so this is your handy work," Elsa smiled, touching her side. It was remarkable. She knew she should be in excruciating pain but her wounds barely ached anymore, just an allover tenderness that could flare into uncomfortable pain if she shifted the wrong way.

"I did my best. Pabbie provided everything I needed to work on you."

"So we've been here for what…a few hours?"

"A full day," Revel corrected. "It's Sunday afternoon, if I've got my days right."

"Is everyone still here? Kristoff, my sister and the guards, I mean." Revel winced and looked away, prompting Elsa to cant her head in uneasy confusion. "Revel, where's my sister?"

"Back at the castle…giving birth."

"_What?!_" This time when she sat up she ignored the pain entirely and stared at him open mouthed. "My sister's in labor and _I'm not there_?!"

"Elsa, you were unconscious. Anna will be fine. I sent Sigmund and the rest of the guards back with her."

"You don't understand," she snapped, struggling to push herself onto her knees, her side and back starting to pulse. She managed to make it into a kneeling position, limbs shaking, before lurching to her feet. Leaning heavily against the stone wall, she attempted to move towards the rawhide flap when the unhappy ache of her wounds suddenly flared into a burning agony and she began to sag. Revel, who had gotten to his feet alongside the queen, caught her as her knees buckled and she tipped forward, vision momentarily blurring.

"Whoa, hey, I've got you," he soothed, easing the both of them back down into their knees. Elsa's breathing was labored with pain, frost crusting her fingers and spreading out under her, so he kept her close to his chest, letting her catch her breath.

"I need…" she struggled, fighting through the wall of fire quickly engulfing her, "to get back home. Anna…needs me."

"I know, but you can't move around so much at first. It's a miracle you're moving around at all, but if you push yourself there's a chance you'll reopen your wounds."

"But I need to be there for her!" she countered, urgency and guilt plain on her face.

"You need to be well enough first, love. Anna didn't want to leave you either, but she had to think about the babies. You need to do the same and think about yourself. Your body needs a chance to heal."

"But I—"

"Stop," he said, silencing her with a finger over her lips. "At the rate you're healing, I think we might be able to leave tomorrow morning, but only if you calm down and allow yourself to rest for a while longer. Anna is fine. You know she is with Kristoff by her side. You'll see her soon."

Elsa reluctantly allowed him to lay her back down but was unable to allow herself to fully relax. As queen she should be there to welcome the birth of the only current, eligible heirs to the throne of Arendelle, but she also should be there because it was her little sister. Elsa had no trouble believing Anna would have more children in the future, but missing out on this opportunity physically pained her.

"What kind of sister am I if I'm not there for the birth of my nieces or nephews?" she mournfully voice aloud.

"One who was just recently fighting for her life," Revel answered firmly, making her look at him. "This is not something to feel guilty about, Elsa. This is just horrible timing on the universe's part." That managed to pull a faint smile onto her lips. "Are you hungry?" he asked, turning the tide of conversation.

"I am, actually," she admitted with a small amount of blush rising into her cheeks as she attempted to be polite. Really, Elsa was almost beyond the point of famished and had seriously considered gnawing on her arm. She attributed her hunger to how quickly her body was healing.

Revel laughed and got to his feet. "I'll go get some more food from Bulda."

"More?"

"I—um—ate your portion while you were sleeping," he admitted sheepishly.

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Figures. Leave the food with the men and they eat it all."

"Hey, I'll have you know I hadn't eaten since Friday."

"That makes two of us," she countered quickly, her wit returning. Revel made a face and disappeared, returning a few minutes later with another tray of food and some tea that Elsa eyed suspiciously. "I swear its normal tea…or as normal as troll tea can be. We'll drink it together."

So they ate and drank their fill, both basking in the others company and continuing the threads of their conversation until there was little else to say. Eventually, once the food was gone and the tray moved aside, the two lay together, drifting in and out. Bulda and Pabbie stopped by at some point later in the afternoon and found the two lovers asleep in each-other's arms. The trolls left them to their well-deserved rest, shooing a few curious youngsters away so the couple could sleep in peace and regain their strength.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you're well enough for this," Revel asked for the fifth time since Elsa had emerged from the rock shelter earlier that morning.<p>

"How many times do I need to tell you that I'm fine," she groused, leaning heavily against a boulder, right arm crossed over her midsection and applying pressure to her bandaged side. She'd donned the thick wool tunic Bulda had given her, the fabric, despite having been taken in considerably, still swallowed her willowy frame. The troll-mother had secured it with a sash, careful not to tie it too tight lest it chafe at Elsa's stitches.

Revel had checked them earlier that morning, carefully unbinding her and allowing the queen the first real look at the injuries she could at least see. The gash in her side was a shallow crescent that began towards the back of her torso and stopped below the curve of her ribs just below her breast— roughly twelve or more inches in length. Her beloved had done a fine job sewing her back together, the sections of lacerated skin fitting together like puzzle pieces, the sinew he'd used to hold it closed a stitch that would have made Ingrid, the royal seamstress, proud. Elsa knew there was going to be a scar, but judging from Revel's excellent work it would one she could live with. The rest of her body, namely her right side and chest, was a mass of mottled bruising of varying degrees of color.

"The gash on your back was the worst," he'd explained while peeling the strips of ointment suffused bark away. Elsa sat very still as he worked, wincing every-so-often when he pulled a sensitive stitch.

"How so?" she'd asked, trying not to fidget.

"The cut on your side was made by a sharp blade meaning the laceration was a clean break in the skin."

"No kidding," Elsa mumbled, suppressing a sick shiver at the memory of Fritz's blade against her skin and how it had tugged before biting deep. Even the memory of the pain was enough to make her nauseous. Revel seemed to sense her emotional discomfort and carefully wrapped his arms around her shoulders, nuzzling her bare neck and laying down a string of kisses from her shoulder to just below her ear. Elsa shivered in pleasure, biting her bottom lip to keep from gasping.

"I've got you; you're safe," he reiterated for the hundredth time, mumbling the mantra he'd been reciting since she'd awoken.

"I feel you," the queen replied, finishing the mantra and leaning back into him, eyes closed.

After a moment Revel pulled away and bent back to work, continuing his explanation. "Anyway, clean cuts are the easiest wounds to stitch. Unfortunately, the one on your back was ragged and uneven. Putting the skin back together took a lot of piecing, but even then there are uneven areas."

"Is that why it hurts more?"

"That and it runs across your spine." He indicated the path of the wound by running his finger alongside it starting at just left of her lower back, up across her spine, between her shoulder blades and stopping just shy of her right shoulder.

"How long do you think the stitches will be in?"

"I really couldn't say," Revel admitted with a sigh. "I don't know if the Glacier-eye is still healing you, but judging from the works it's done in almost two days, I'd say you might be able to remove them in another week or two."

"Explaining this to Physician Brynja is going to be a chore," the queen muttered, straightening as Revel started to bind her again in fresh bandages provided by the trolls.

"I can imagine there's going to be a lot of meetings and explanations once we get back to the castle," the former captain said quietly, a note of unease in his voice. Elsa didn't need to ask what he was alluding to. If Sigmund had returned with Anna and Kristoff he'd have told the Asham prince what had transpired in the ice castle. There was no telling how Symon would react to the knowledge that his king had been killed while trying to assassinate the Arendelle queen, his champion alongside him. There was no telling how he'd react to the news that Revel was alive and innocent of his murder charge. There was no telling…and the prospect of the unpredictable unknown made Revel nervous. He didn't really know his little brother well enough to gauge how he'd react and that scared him.

"I just don't want you to overexert yourself," Revel explained as he saddled the fjord pony who nickered happily.

"It's a necessary evil, I'm afraid," Elsa replied with a gusty sigh.

"We could stay another day or two…give you a chance to—"

"We're going back to Arendelle, Revel," the queen said, unquestionable finality in her voice. The former captain couldn't help but smile which made Elsa frown. "What?"

"It's just good to hear that regal steel in your voice again. Let's me know you really are on the road to recovery."

"Keep stalling and you'll see exactly how regal I can be," Elsa tried to say with unmoved seriousness but couldn't keep the slowly spreading grin from her face.

"Of course, Majesty," Revel replied with a mocking bow. "I am forever your servant."

Unable to properly smack him, Elsa simply rolled her eyes and leaned against the sun-warmed boulder, the heat a blissful balm on her injuries. Despite having been healed remarkably fast, they still ached and burned every-so-often if she shifted right, and regardless of her driving desire to return to her kingdom, Elsa knew the ride down the mountain would be a painful one.

"It's good to see you standing, Elsa."

The queen turned to find Pabbie standing behind her, kind eyes squinted as he smiled up at her. She returned his smile wishing she could kneel down and give him a proper hug but not wanting to gamble her precarious balancing act. It had taken her most of the morning to remain standing for longer than a couple of seconds. So instead, Elsa turned slightly and held out her hand which the troll chief took after a moment's hesitation. No sparks of warring power leapt between them, a sure sign that the Glacier-eye had run its course and Saja's connection had lessened considerably.

"Thank you, Pabbie. This is twice now you've saved my life. I don't think I can ever repay you."

"It is my duty, Elsa," Pabbie replied with a wide, warm smile, squeezing her hand gently. "I only wish I could have done more. The Glacier-eye is only so powerful."

"It's not your fault Saja won't let you touch me with troll magic. But you gave Revel everything he needed to see to my recovery. That alone was more than I could have asked for."

"You are too kind," the troll chief said with a sigh. Elsa saw the glimmer of distant sadness in the troll's eyes, hundreds of years of guilt hanging around his neck like a weight, and was suddenly overcome with the urge to tell him she knew everything, to let him know he owed her nothing. Four hundred years of bearing the weight of his guilt was long enough, especially since it wasn't his fault. Carefully, because it was difficult to go to her knees due to the stitches in her back, Elsa lowered herself down with the aid of the rock she leaned against and put her hands on Pabbie's shoulders.

"I know everything, Pabbie," she said quietly. "I know what happened to her children and why she distrusts all trolls."

His shock was palpable, eyes wide as saucers. "How did you—"

"It was the Glacier-eye. It allowed me to tap into Saja's memories connected with the troll territory. I saw what happened that night; how Orgram treated her and the truth behind his betrayal."

"My sire was a twisted creature," Pabbie growled, closing his eyes against the memories that flooded his mind. "He didn't begin that way, but his years on this earth shaped him into a cruel and vengeful being."

"He was, but _you_ are not. I saw how you challenged him. I saw how you covered her children with the shroud, and showed them respect even in death. Saja told me you were the one who defected and came to her with the truth."

"I owed her that much after what my sire did to her…how he tortured her over the years. He was the one who created the amulet which capped her powers. She may have not been one of us, and her magic may have been our opposite, but she was still a living being that shared our earth. Who are we to decide who is worthy to walk upon earth-mother's land?"

"You are wise, Pabbie, but you still hold on to your guilt. You need to know that you own me nothing. Four hundred years of servitude is enough."

A small, sad smile tugged at the troll chief's lips and he patted Elsa's hand affectionately. "I made a vow, Elsa, to Saja before she died. She did not want my aid, but I gave it anyway. I told her I would protect her bloodline as a form of penance for my sire's crimes. I am bound to you and your family, by my choosing, and always will be. Even if I cannot touch you with troll magic—even if our powers war with one another— I will always be here to help when and where I can."

"How…did she die?" Elsa asked, unsure she wanted to know.

"She sought the holy man who poisoned her children and found him in a small village by the sea," Pabbie explained, turning his head in the direction of Arendelle. "It was only a few miles from where your kingdom resides now. She confronted him during Mass and dragged him into the center of the town square. At sword point, she forced him to confess his crimes for all to hear. He begged for forgiveness but her rage was terrible and would not be so easily quenched. She killed him in front of his congregation, cutting him in two, which panicked the village. They attacked her out of fear, riddling her with arrows, but Saja was only half human and not so easily felled. She destroyed the town, leveling it completely and killing every last soul."

"She died in that village?"

"No, she died on the shore of your kingdom. Ragnar was so aggrieved by her loss he moved his kingdom to the fjord and renamed it Arendelle in order to honor Saja's memory. In the old tongue it was Arnadarl, Arna being Saja's adopted father's family name."

"But Saja was a Frosberg," Elsa frowned.

"Ragnar was the Frosberg. Saja took his name when she became queen, but for whatever reason Ragnar wanted to name the kingdom after her family's name."

"I had always wondered…" Elsa whispered, more questions than answers rising into her mind. She heard Revel walk up beside her and kneel, planting a soft kiss on the side of her head.

"Gralysningen is saddled and ready to go when you are," he said quietly.

She nodded and turned back to the troll chief. "Thank you for everything, Pabbie."

"You are welcome, Elsa. Please, return home safely and tell Anna-dear we look forward to seeing her and the little one's soon."

"I will."

"And give her this!" Bulda called, jogging from around the corner with a bundle in her hands. She was a little out of breath and looked relieved Revel and Elsa hadn't left yet. She handed the bundle to the queen, broad smile dominating her face. "I made a blanket for the babies."

"Of course. The first of many grandmother gifts, I suspect," Elsa teased lightly.

The troll-mother laughed and nodded. "What kind of grandmother would I be if I didn't spoil my little ones some?"

Elsa smiled and had Revel help her to her feet, leaning heavily on him as they walked to where Gralysningen stood pawing impatiently at the ground. After making sure she had a firm grip of the saddle, Revel swung up and settled into place with practiced ease but stopped when he reached down to pick Elsa up.

"I'm not sure how we're going to do this," he admitted with a helpless flush.

"Allow us," Pabbie said and rolled into his boulder form. Bulda jumped atop him, and curled inward, the two of them creating a small stair Elsa could climb rather than having Revel lift her into the saddle and risk pulling or tearing her stitches. She graciously took his hand and climbed up, sitting side-saddle in front of him with her arm around his waist, relieved that her saddle didn't have a horn in the front like many seemed to have adopted over time.

"You two are wonderful, thank you," she said as the trolls unrolled.

"You're welcome, now get home. The faster you heal the faster we can see you and the grandbabies again," Bulda chuckled, shooing them away like a true mother. The queen and former captain waved good-bye, trotting back into the forest and guiding Gralysningen onto the well-worn trail some yards from the troll territory entrance.

* * *

><p>As anticipated, the ride back to Arendelle was a challenge for both Revel and the queen. Despite his best efforts, the former captain wasn't able to make it an entirely painless journey. They trotted at an easy pace, making relatively good time along the mountain passes, but the terrain was uneven and at a near constant downward slant, forcing Elsa to lean back and grip Revel's shirt lest she slide off the horse. Ridding side-saddle was a new experience in balance for her and one that was made all the more difficult with her still aching injuries. More than once they had to stop in order to give Elsa a change to breathe and shift, all the while her bandaged wounds screamed at her from the near constant jerking and jarring of Gralysningen footfalls. The small breaks allowed them time to sip at the water skins provided by the trolls and munch on a few berries Revel was able to gather from nearby bushes. He would explain to the queen different techniques of differentiating edible berries from poisonous ones, pointing out small differences she would have completely missed had she been doing this alone. But their breaks remained small and before long the two were back in the saddle, Elsa bracing herself for the pain and gritting through each footfall.<p>

Attempting to get her mind off her discomfort, Revel struck up bits of conversation where he could, explaining more foraging techniques and making her laugh with stories of his mishaps during his first few years with the poachers.

"We were trying to climb a steep rise up a small cliff face when I spotted a fallen tree braced against the cliff. It was at just the right angle we all could climb it and get out of the gorge relatively quickly, but Mikael warned me against it."

"So obviously, you did it anyway," Elsa filled in, stifling a hiss of pain when she shifted against and stretched the stitched in her back.

"Of course," Revel laughed, unconsciously adjusting his grip around her waist. "I climbed it in a heartbeat and sat smugly at the top waiting for the rest of the hunting party to catch up. Duval, one of the younger members but older than me by about four years, who I had a small rivalry with, only shook his head sadly at me. It wasn't until the next day when my hands, arms, neck and face broke out into an itchy rash that I realized the 'vine' I'd used to climb the tree with was actually a poison oak vine."

"Oh no," Elsa gasped, trying to smother a giggle. "Did you really? I'm not even a woodsman and I know not to touch the hairy vines growing on trees."

"Inexperience at its best," Revel sniffed, guiding Gralysningen away from a cluster of thick bramble bushes. They'd already had to unstick themselves from one encounter already.

"Uh huh," Elsa said, unconvinced. "Sure it wasn't just a case of rivalry blindness?"

"I admit to nothing," Revel grinned and kissed her atop the head again, not able to do it enough. They continued to speak as they rode down the mountain, their conversation lilting from one touchstone to the next with lazy efficiency. Revel learned about the vision Elsa had regarding the death of Saja's three youngest children and the betrayal of Pabbie's sire. He learned about the supposed origins of Arendelle, how it had been the site of the Frost Born's death and had been founded by her aggrieved husband. It was all fascinating and raised more questions than it gave answers, something Elsa was determined to look into once she fully recovered. In return, the queen learned about Revel's encounter with the trolls and their inherent distrust for him at first.

"I'm surprised they warmed to you that quickly. Usually Pabbie is a lot less social."

"I contribute his willingness to interact with me due to the fact that I was the only one who could work on you," Revel answered, tightening his grip on her as they trotted through a shallow stream. He felt Elsa stiffen when his arm squeezed her left side and winced. Despite her obvious discomfort she'd not complained, suffering in silence as she had most of her life.

"That certainly helped, yes," Elsa smiled, watching the forest slip by. It had turned out to be a beautiful day. The sky was devoid of clouds and shone a brilliant blue through the leafy branches above; a gentle, warm breeze shifting the foliage and sighing through the boughs. Revel told her about the ceremony he'd sat in on, about the being he'd seen walking amongst the trolls and how their magic had appeared to him. Elsa listened in rapt silence as he described the vortex of color and the words of Pabbie's song that refused to leave his head since hearing them. He even told her about the weird second sight he'd had while Himmelen sat on his shoulder and Saja used his energy to speak to the trolls. But what he neglected to tell his love, what he kept close to his chest, was that he still saw in the wavy smoke vision even now. Sometimes it would come to him in a flash and he'd see things in a slight double vision, the tangible world standing in rigid parallel to this strange new world filled with shifting shadows and…things. Revel didn't know what they were, didn't want to know, but it didn't change the fact that he could see them every-so-often. Figures would dart around trees and peer out at him, hunched or malformed with sharp, glowing eyes, but when he blinked they would be gone. Sometimes he'd see strange blue balls of light, like tongues of fire solidifying into solid shapes, drifting through the forest. In one particularly startling instance, he and Elsa had fallen into comfortable silence, her drifting in and out against him, when suddenly the former captain looked over and saw a man nearly eight feet tall standing off the path a ways, watching him. If his size wasn't enough to make Revel look twice, the massive set of antlers resting atop his head was. Revel jerked hard on the reins, startling Gralysningen and Elsa at the same time as the horse came to an abrupt standstill. Of course, when he looked again, heart in his throat, there was no one there, only swaying branches as if something had just passed through.

"Something wrong?" Elsa had asked, following his line of sight.

"I thought I saw someone standing there," he admitted vaguely, feeling a rush of guilt for lying to his love but not wanting to spook her. He shook his head and smiled, flicking the reins for Gralysningen to start walking again, though the pony gave a flick of his ears in something that could have been perceived as curse in horse language. "Must have just caught a tree the right way."

Elsa wasn't convinced and felt a strange fluttering sensation against her brand like an erratic heartbeat. She let the incident go, but couldn't understand why Revel had gone so pale at the sight of a man in the woods. This was open hunting season, after all, so people in the forests surrounding Arendelle wasn't an uncommon thing.

Four hours later Arendelle came into view and both travelers breathed a sigh of relief. They pressed on into town, moving past rich farmland towards the back of the kingdom, the sun starting to move from its zenith towards the horizon line by the time they crossed from grass onto cobblestones. It being Monday afternoon, there were a large amount of people milling about in various stages of work who stopped what they were doing and stared with wide-eyed wonder or glowering unease as Revel rode towards the palace with a very un-regal looking queen ridding side-saddle in front of him. Despite hers and Bulda's best efforts, Elsa still looked fairly haggard, but at least they were able to tame her hair into her customary braid and wash the last of the dried blood from her skin.

"Seems my reputation has caught up with me," Revel murmured, watching the townsfolk for any sign of impending trouble. Even when a volatile situation had a chance to cool an angry mob could kick up in an instant, and Revel could easily see the good people of Arendelle attempting to pull him away from Elsa if they thought him a threat to their queen—which, judging from a few ominously dark looks, was the case with many. However, the spark never made it to the powder keg. Apparently, Sigmund had placed a watch who was to report the moment Revel and Elsa returned. Within about a minute of the two being back in town Sigmund rode up on his black stallion with a regiment of guards who immediately formed a tight barricade around the travelers, escorting them back to the castle.

"Good to see you whole and healthy, Majesty," Sigmund said with an obviously relieved, albeit completely shocked smile. Clearly he anticipated her to be in a far worse state than she was.

"Thank you, Lieutenant, though I am far from healthy but well on the road to recovery," Elsa said with a kind nod. If Sigmund thought it strange that she leaned heavily against the former captain or that his arm had yet to drop from where it had snaked around her waist, he said nothing.

"How is my sister?" the queen asked as they crossed the stone bridge connecting the castle to the town proper, the clatter of their horse's hooves echoing against the low retaining wall.

"Forgive me, Majesty, but you would have to speak to the royal physician. I have not seen or heard from the princess or Baron Kristoff since we returned two days ago."

"Did she give birth en-route?"

"No, Majesty. We got here before the actual birthing happened."

Elsa accepted this bit of information and attempted to swallow the anxiety building in her chest only to have it expand and grow heavier when they entered the courtyard and found prince Symon and his Asham guards waiting for them. Revel reined up, face suddenly grim as he let his eyes slide from one Asham guard to the next. He knew these were well trained men by their rigid and ready stance, hands resting on the pommel of their swords as the first, silent warning they carried live steel and wouldn't hesitate to use it should their prince call them to action.

"Queen Elsa," Symon called, standing flanked on either side by fully armored guards, "I would have a word with my brother, if it pleases you."

Elsa felt a spark of fear shoot through her that Revel seemed to remarkably feel because he jumped and looked down at her with wide eyes. They held each other's gaze for a heartbeat, both feeling the others trepidation and unease through some weird and unfathomable bond. Elsa was the first to break eye contact and sever the connection.

"Help me down. I will settle this," she told a deeply frowning Sigmund who had stopped next to Gralysningen after dismounting from his own horse.

"Elsa, please. Let me speak—"

"I have had enough of Asham royalty and their presumed opinion that I owe them something," the queen snapped, interrupted her love, feeling heat flush her face. Sigmund obediently stepped forward when she gave him a sharp look and helped her down. He held her by her waist, which was a mistake, pressing to firmly into the stitches on her left side and making her gasp and stagger once her feet alighted on the ground. Revel was out of the saddle in a flash and helped the big guard who looked suddenly so unsure of how to touch the queen after seeing pain twist her features.

"We do this together or not at all," he whispered into her ear as he helped her stand. "That was the deal."

"I cannot appear weak in front of your brother, Revel. This is my kingdom, and he needs to remember that," she countered, brushing off his aid and standing on her own. After a few quick breaths to steady her nerves and the pain of standing ramrod straight, Elsa slowly walked forward, head held high.

"Prince Symon," she addressed him in the clear, authoritative voice of a seasoned monarch, "I understand you will have questions for your brother. However, there are pressing matters you and I must address before that can happen. Namely what transpired at my ice castle. I assume Lieutenant Sigmund gave you a general briefing on the events?"

_As if someone can be briefed on the fact that their blood relative tried to assassinate another monarch,_ Elsa thought grimly.

Symon strode forward, his men at his heels. Reflexively, Revel and Sigmund flanked Elsa, the big guard keeping his hand on his sword pommel while the former captain slid into a shallow but coil-tight fighter's stance. When Symon reached into his jacket pocket, all three tensed, a warning snap of cold rolling from the queen as she watched him warily. Much to her relief, her powers had recovered more quickly than her body, the fragmented mess it had become during her fight with Fritz congealing back together after the second time she'd awoken in the rock shelter. Symon carefully withdrew a parchment of paper with a broken Arendelle seal and held it up for everyone to see.

"I received this transcription from Chamberlain Kai shortly after the princess returned from the mountains. Apparently, I have been lied to my entire life, and it's about high time this issue was resolved." Turning an unreadable look onto Revel, Symon said, "You are not a prince of Asham nor are you technically my brother."

Revel felt like his heart and stomach had just fallen out of his body and plunged into the cobblestones at his feet. He opened his mouth to try and reason with Symon, but the prince cut him off.

"You are none of these things, but I know what you really are—"

"Symon please let me expla—"

"You're my king and the rightful ruler of Asham." Suddenly, the prince sank to his knees, the rest of the Asham guards following suit, right hands fisted and pressed against their hearts in the universal sign for subjugation. When Symon looked up again, he was smiling broadly in a playful way that made Revel suspect this had all been an elaborate show. "It's good to see you again, brother."

All preamble going out the window, Revel pulled his brother to his feet and both men embraced tightly. "I've missed you, Symon."

"As have I."

"Fifteen years is a long time to be away."

"Yes it is," Symon smiled and stepped back, bowing as Elsa carefully approached, confusion and relief warring for dominance on her face. He bowed at the waist, as was proper, and said, "Forgive me, Majesty. I know this is not a time for jests, but I couldn't contain my joy upon receiving word that my older brother was innocent of his crime."

The queen's emotional confusion came to a stop somewhere between irritation and understanding, but she slipped her regal mask on with expert ease and stared coolly at Symon. "You are right, sir. This is no time for jest. Certainly not here in _my_ castle courtyard," she emphasized with a small wave of her hand.

The Asham prince's face fell and he hung his head in shame until the queen sighed dramatically, a note of her own kind of mischief coloring her voice. "Still, I can see how you'd be overjoyed with the news. We will have much to discuss very shortly."

Even though Symon's smile had slightly returned, he appeared weighed down by an unpleasant duty. "Forgive me, Queen Elsa, but I must speak with my brother immediately. This is not a matter that can wait, and it is also a matter solely for Asham ears."

"Brother," Revel said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, "I need to see to her Majesty."

"With respect, Highness," the prince said, emphasizing Revel's proper title, "this matter needs to be resolved now. According to this document you are the rightful ruler of Asham. We must discuss a course of action to take. Back home you are still viewed as a traitor to the crown, and that needs to change. We must also discuss what happened the night of father's murder and what part Adrek and Fritz played in it. I'm sorry, but you need to come with me now."

Revel looked stricken, glancing between Elsa and his brother. In one he had found everything he'd been looking for and more, but in the other was a life he'd left behind, a kingdom now without a proper ruler, and a brother he hardly knew. Suddenly he was torn between want and responsibility, and never had a choice been more heartbreaking. He knew which was the logical choice, which was the right one, but he also knew which would make him the most happy. Elsa saw the confliction tearing him apart, and Revel's heart broke anew when she nodded in acceptance of his already made decision. A flutter of cold touched the mark hidden under his shirt, and he realized with a start he was feeling Elsa's sadness through his brand.

"Go with him, Revel," she said, her voice level, but her eyes bright with sorrow. "The two of you have so much to—"

There was an audible gasp from the assembly when Revel stepped in front to the queen, took her face in his hands, and kissed her deeply. He held the embrace for as long as he could, savoring her taste, feel and scent. For half a heartbeat Elsa stiffened at the public display of affection, for she would have never been so bold, but very quickly shoved her disquiet aside.

_What the hell. I love him. So let them watch._

After a breathless moment they separated but kept their foreheads together for a few seconds.

"I love you," he whispered so just she could hear.

"And I love you," Elsa replied, feeling sparks on her tongue. "Now go with your brother. We'll see each other again."

Sigmund politely cleared his throat, gaze politely averted. "Majesty, we should get you to the physician so she can see to your wounds. I'm also sure the princess will be wanting to see you as well."

Not trusting her voice, because Elsa knew she was losing one of the most precious things in her life, she simply nodded and moved back. Revel nodded as well and stepped away, refusing to untangle their intertwined fingers until the last possible second. The queen let her hand drop and turned away, glancing over her shoulder, Revel doing the same, as they drifted away from one another, two bodies caught in the currents of opposing tides. Before he passed through the castle gates, he turned once more and pressed a hand against his chest, smiling at his beloved. Elsa jumped when she felt a phantom hand touch her chest just over her heart, gentle heat warming her brand. Revel mouthed 'I love you' and Elsa could swear she heard his voice as if his mouth was right next to her ear. Smiling despite the sad circumstances, she returned the gesture and mouthed her declaration of love as well, watching until Revel disappeared from sight. Only then did she turn towards the castle and the now daunting task of walking all the way to the residency wing.

_This is going to hurt, _she thought with a determined sigh, taking the first step gingerly.

* * *

><p>Her earlier prediction of overall discomfort of walking to her sister's quarters was grossly understated…the climb was absolutely brutal. Elsa had waved off any offers of help or general assistance, each step up the stairs a mountain to conquer, but conquer it she did. It took the better part of an hour to make a journey she usually made in less than three minutes, and by the end of it she was sweating enough that her snug bandages felt damp and her hair was plastered to her forehead. As always, Sigmund followed closely behind and practically vibrated with his inability to aid his queen, watching her labor up the steps with the deepest frown she'd ever seen dominating his face.<p>

"Majesty, please, allow me to assist you," he urged gently, making sure to keep his voice level though Elsa could hear the pleading edge to it.

"Thank you, Lieutenant, but I require no aid. Plus, the physician who saw to me in the mountains said it would be best if I took every opportunity to stretch my legs and rebuild my strength."

That was a bald-faced lie, and she knew it. Pabbie and instructed her to strict bed rest for the next couple of days in order to give her body time to regain its strength. Revel had also echoed that sage advice numerous times during their journey back to the kingdom, driving home she needed to relax as much as possible. Elsa had listened to their words but had long ago decided, after hearing she'd missed the birth of her nieces or nephews, she would participate in a form of penance and climb to her sister's side much like Anna had climbed to North Mountain three years ago in order to bring her home.

_I'll be damned if I let someone carry me to Anna. Let me be stubborn in this one thing. If Anna did it for me, I can do it for her. I owe her that much,_ Elsa though over and over again as she struggled up the stairs. _I am also a queen and will not appear weak in front of my castle staff. Not after word of what happened has most likely already reached every ear in my kingdom. Let them build a story around my seemingly miraculous recovery…let it become legend. It's just another piece of armor for the future._

But by the time she reached the top of the stairs she was completely regretting her decision, nausea rolling around in her stomach like a turmoil sea, making her vision swim. Still, she maintained her regal posture, or as much as her stitches would allow. Head held high, Elsa leaned heavily against the banister, eyes closed in the hope that if she stopped watching the carpet roll and buck under her feet her stomach would somehow settle. But she knew she was almost spent, the last of her strength reserves sucked dry. Even lifting her hand to press against her side took a massive amount of effort, her limbs heavy like led weights. As much as it galled her, Elsa was preparing to swallow her pride and ask Sigmund for help when a familiar figure met her on the final landing, relief and happiness glowing from every inch of his body.

"You really did a number on yourself," Kristoff smiled widely, descending the last few steps in an easy stride. Elsa returned his smile with a thin one of her own, struggling to keep her breathing even.

"What this?" she said, quirking an eyebrow and motioning at herself. "Just an exercise in endurance, I assure you."

"Uh-huh, I'm sure," he said with an unconvinced roll of the eyes and attempted to move in to help her up the last few steps, but she waved him away.

"I can manage, Kristoff."

"I know you can," he replied kindly but refused to step aside. "But there is no shame in allowing family to help family."

"I…" Elsa felt a spark of defeated shame warm her cheeks and looked down. She could hardly hold herself up, using the banister as more of a lifeline than a crutch. If she let go, the queen was certain she'd crumble and would be unable to pick herself back up. Still looking down, she nodded her consent, but Kristoff surprised her by bending in half and placing her right arm over his muscular shoulders and held it there with his left hand. He used his only other free arm to gently loop around her waist, allowing her the aid she so desperately needed while at the same time letting her walk on her own. Elsa felt another bloom of gratitude warm her. She realized Kristoff was helping her maintain her regal image, bending to help but not making her appear to be an invalid or weak by carrying her.

"Thank you," she whispered sincerely as they ascended the last few stairs together and made for the residency wing.

"Like I said, family helps family. It's the least I can do," he replied with a smile. Elsa thought she caught a glint of something new in his eyes and understood it to be the glow of a new parent. It was pride and happiness, relief and almost uncontainable joy that spilled out of him like a spring. It removed the lines of worry and fear from his face and made him appear younger while at the same bizarre time aging him considerably. Kristoff was a father now, and he wore the title with obvious chest-swelling pride like a man with a new medal.

They made much better time than if Elsa had struggled there on her own. He let her rest against the wall as he opened the door to her sister's room and peeked inside, withdrawing a second later and pushing it the rest of the way open. "She's resting, but I think she'll want to wake up for this," he said and was prepared to help Elsa the rest of the way, but this time she did wave away his aid.

"I'll walk the rest of the way."

Kristoff hesitated for a few moments but eventually nodded.

"Majesty," Sigmund said from a respectable distance. "Allow me to fetch Physician Brynja so that she may take a look at your injuries."

"That will be fine, Lieutenant," Elsa nodded, turning towards him. "Please, also have Gerda bring up some tea and pastries."

Sigmund nodded once and turned sharply on his heels, disappearing down the stairs at a relatively fast clip. Alone in the hallway with her brother-in-law, Elsa released an anxious breath and looked up at him, nervousness starting to coil in her stomach and making her fingers itch.

"I don't know what to say to her," she admitted, unable to maintain eye contact with him for very long.

"I don't understand," Kristoff frowned.

"The last time she and I spoke I…struck…her," Elsa swallowed, the memory painfully vivid in her mind. The shame and guilt she felt only seemed to build, swelling to the point she thought she would burst if it didn't find an escape. Unconsciously, ice began crusting her nail and creeping up her hands like fractal vines. In all her years, the queen had never purposely raised a hand to her sister. Even during her most trying and irritated moments, Elsa had always exercised a level of cold decorum when her anger was pushed to its limits. So the idea that she'd lost control and lashed out at the one person who meant more to her than her entire kingdom, who she'd fought to protect for thirteen years, was sickening. And to make matters worse, she knew she'd left a bruise behind. Elsa could still hear the crack of her knuckles skipping across Anna's cheekbone…could still feel the sting on her skin and hugged herself, the lump in her throat doubling in size.

Kristoff was quiet for a few moments, clearly trying to compile his thoughts into something meaningful to say. "Bulda always said we make bad choices when we're mad or scared or stressed. You were all those thing that night. I'm not justifying what you did, but I understand why it happened. Anna doesn't hate you for it. You know she doesn't have the ability to hate anyone," he said with a small smile and faded with his next words. "And after what happened in the mountains on the way to the troll territory…"

"Revel informed me of what happened," Elsa admitted, looking off down the hallway, eyes distant.

_I died coming down the mountain and my sister was there to witness this. Oh Anna, what have I put you through?_

"I could hardly get her to come back to the castle when she went into labor. She flat out refused to leave your side."

"Even after all I did to—"

Kristoff put a gentle hand on her shoulder, the look on his face cutting the words right off her tongue. "Everything you've ever done has been for the benefit of Anna and this kingdom. You had a moment of weakness, Elsa, and your sister has already forgiven you. Now you need to forgive yourself."

"But I—"

"Go in there and talk to her," he interrupted with gentle firmness. "She needs to see you. She needs to know you're okay. I'll wait out here for Brynja. You two need time together."

Elsa swallowed the still swelling lump in her throat again and edged through the doorway. Kristoff smiled at her one more time before shutting it behind her with a faint click. The queen stared at the hand-carved piece of white-washed wood for a number of seconds before scraping together enough courage to propel herself to turn.

Anna's room was bright, the curtains thrown back to allow the afternoon sun to bathe the spacious quarters in golden light. Unlike the queen's personal chambers, the princess had an affinity for warm colors made all the more luminous by the bands of sunlight lancing in through the triangular window on the other side of the room. The floor was hardwood stained with a warm lacquer that made it shine, and numerous rugs lay everywhere in order to stave off the chill most castles were prone to. Anna's bed was a monstrous piece of furniture along the right wall with an ornate canapé of burgundy canvas hanging from a beautifully painted white-wood frame. The canvas had been tied back against the wall with gold rope. Anna had the bed commissioned after hers engagement to Kristoff, wanting it to be large enough to allow them room for comfortable, cramp free sleeping; though Elsa suspected the bed's size had more to do with carnal pleasures than adequate sleep room. The multi-colored quilts and white sheets were a mess as was the woman sleeping soundly against a large assortment of plush white pillows.

The princess wore a thin green robe of silk, tied together with a matching sash, that stood in stark contrast to the smooth, freckled skin of her neck, chest and face. Her hair was a tousled mane of strawberry blond; her customary braids undone allowing her thick locks to go where they wished, which was everywhere, cascading over her shoulders in twisted strands. Elsa felt an affectionate smile touch her lips as she neared that faded and quickly fell when she noticed the discolored bruise under Anna's left eye. The swelling had gone down considerably, but the bruise had yet to fade entirely, still bluish-brown in places. The queen felt her body begin to lock up the longer she stared at her sleeping sister and the bruise on her face, two halves of her mind warring with one another. One half said stay, Anna needs you, but the other half screamed for her to run, that she was a danger. Elsa wavered half way between her sister's bed and the door, tense as a bow string and sore beyond reason. Courage leaking out of her like a boat with a hole in the hull, she was prepared to spin around and flee when the shuffling and gurgling of something she'd not noticed snapped her attention to the large bassinette beside Anna's bed. All thoughts of leaving fled from her mind as she tottered to the mahogany crib and looked down into it with wide eyes.

_They're beautiful,_ was her first awed thought, the breath rushing from her lungs in an excited exhale, her smile almost painful. _And very squishy looking._

Two, tiny twins lay side-by-side in a crib of soft manila silk, swaddled in warm blankets. One was peacefully asleep while the other stared up at her with big, beautiful eyes of the clearest blue. The newborn, already blessed with a head of curly, strawberry blond hair like its mother, watched the queen for a few breathless heartbeats, eyes so large and filled with the wonder a child so young gazes at the world with. Suddenly it broke into a pleased, sputtering cackle, pink, toothless gums visible as it laughed and reached for Elsa with a squeal, tiny fingers spread wide.

"Hello, little-one," Elsa whispered softly, her grin dominating her face, letting the infant take her cool finger in its tiny hand. With surprising strength it jerked her hand around as if it were trying to shake hands, a string of cackles still rolling from its belly. "It's nice to meet you too," the queen laughed with it, unable to contain the bubbling joy welling inside her. Truly, there was magic within all newborns because one couldn't help but smile and laugh when they looked at you, innocence and purity pouring out of them and enveloping anyone near in a blanket of ceaseless wonder and enjoyment.

The second infant blinked awake at the sound of its sibling's laughter and stared up at the queen with an almost quizzical look, left hand immediately disappearing into its mouth where it began to chew and suck in its fingers. This one barely had any hair on its wrinkly head, but it did have the most striking brown eyes Elsa had ever seen. They were almost amber in color and filled with an eerie kind of wisdom far beyond its scant few hours of life. With the index finger of her left hand still held in the firm grip of the first newborn, Elsa resisted the urge to touch the little-one's face, unsure how it would react to her cold fingers, instead tickling its belly. Nonpulsed, the amber-eyed infant continued to stare.

"You're the somber one, I can already tell," she said with a rueful sigh. "Here, let me show you something." With the twitch of her fingers a small snowflake appeared, hovering above the silent newborn who tracked it with now wide, expectant eyes. Gently, Elsa set the snowflake down on the infant's nose and laughed softly when it broke into a cackle and attempted to bat at the flake, pudgy arms flapping at its side.

"Just like your Mama." The queen smiled at the fond memory she had of doing the same with Anna when she was a newborn. She'd lean as far into the crib as possible and lightly pepper her with snowflakes, watching her laugh and squeal as she tried to catch them. "I have something for you from your troll grandmother," she said, pulling the carefully folded bundle from where she'd secured it in her sash. Gently she unfolded it and realized it was actually two small blankets about as large as her torso woven with intricate markings and spirals that were mesmerizing to look at. The prickling tingle of her brand told her there was troll magic here. Both blankets were identical save for the coloring. They both had green and brown designs, but one had pink and red added while the other was blue and purple.

_Boy and a girl, _Elsa realized with a chuckle. _Bulda knew Anna was having a boy and a girl._

Unsure which was which because children looked the same when they were still freshly squishy and pink from birth, the queen laid the blankets over both. The shifting of bed linens drew Elsa's attention away from the little ones, and her previous joy hitched on a bump of sudden fear. Anna groaned lightly and rubbed at her face with the heel of her palm, mumbling a few incoherencies as she fought to wake up. The queen held very still, unsure why she felt like a deer spotted by a hunter but unable to calm the pounding of her heart. She withdrew her hands from the infants, lest her magic accidentally spark, resting them on the edge of the bassinette.

"Mmmm, baby, let them sleep," Anna mumbled, cracking her eyes open. "We just got them to— Elsa?"

The princess froze when her hazy, unfocused eyes alighted on her sister and suddenly focused like a lens clicking into place. In a flail of blankets and limbs she sat bolt upright, eyes as large as dinner places and wreathed with shockingly disbelief.

"_Elsa_!"

Before the queen could move, Anna had thrown the blankets aside and practically dove out of bed, wrapping her sister in a powerful hug and burying her face in her neck. Elsa fought back a scream when the princess squeezed, biting into her lip until she was sure it would start bleeding. Anna must have felt her stiffen and suddenly remembered her injuries.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" she squeaked, immediately letting go but taking her sister's face in shaking hands. Tears glazed her eyes. "Please tell me I'm not dreaming."

"I'm here, Anna," Elsa smiled, gently removing her sister's hands from her face and holding them against her chest so she could hopefully feel her heartbeat. The princess stepped close once again, fighting the urge to put her arms around Elsa's waist, and buried her face in her chest. The queen gingerly hugged her, stroking her unkempt hair as Anna clung to her with a desperate tightness, body trembling.

"Don't ever do that to me again," she rasped, voice laden with barely restrained tears. "Do you understand? Don't ever leave me like that again."

"I swear to it," Elsa replied, squeezing her little sister as tightly as she could despite her body's objections. Anna must have sensed something, a shift in her sister's balance or the way she leaned heavily against her, because she pulled her towards an ornate, cushioned rocking chair next to the crib and eased her into it despite Elsa's objections. Squatting down with surprising ease for a woman who'd just given birth, Anna took a better look at her, gently tugging open her tunic and staring at the bandages underneath.

"Pabbie healed you," she whispered, torn between pressing a hand against her sister's chest and keeping her distance in case she touched a sensitive area.

Not wanting to complicate things right at this moment, Elsa only nodded but couldn't keep from cupping Anna's left cheek and running her thumb over the bruise. Fresh guilt twisted inside her and she clenched her teeth to the point she thought her molars would crack. "I'm so sorry, Anna. I can't tell you how awful I feel about..."

Anna took her sister's hand in hers and squeezed, an understanding smile curling her lips. "You're not entirely at fault. I said some horrible things too that should have never come from my mouth."

"But it _hit_ you," the queen reiterated in a hoarse whisper.

"And I called you names and broke the law by breaking Revel out of jail. If I hadn't done that you wouldn't have gone up to the ice castle chasing after him and that Asham prick and his minion wouldn't have followed you. It's my fault this happened. It's my fault you got hurt."

"Anna, no," Elsa said firmly. "If you hadn't broken Revel out, I would have lost him. I've no doubt Fritz or Adrek would have had him assassinated in his cell. Because of you he's alive."

"But because of me you nearly died," the princess argued, tears welling in her eyes at the memory of Revel hunched over her sister, pushing air into her lungs over and over in a desperate scramble to restart her heart, blood staining his hands.

"Anna, we can go in circles blaming ourselves for the rest of eternity. I don't blame you for what happened to me. I made terrible choices after finding out about Revel's identity and sought to be a fair and just queen when I should have just listened to my instincts— those same instincts you seemed to have no trouble listening to— and refused Adrek right out."

"But that could have caused a war."

"It could have but maybe it was all talk. We'll never know now that Adrek is dead."

The two were silent for a handful of moments, Elsa staring through the window while Anna laid her head in her lap, arms curled around her sister's legs, until one of the little ones in the crib fussed and the princess leapt to her feet, suddenly shaking with new mother jitters. She stepped up to the bassinette and made a surprised noise, obviously just noticing the blankets.

"Did you bring these or am I losing my mind?"

"The latter, I think," Elsa teased with a wink. "Bulda gave them to me to give to you."

"They're perfect," Anna smiled, gently lifting the fussy one out of the crib while softly shushing it in her cradled arms. Elsa watched and couldn't do anything but smile at the way Anna held her child, her entire body glowing with maternal warmth. The princess walked back over to her sister, beaming.

"This is Jorg," she introduced, holding him out for Elsa to take.

"Anna, I'm not sure I can—"

"Oh shut up; you'll be fine," Anna laughed and placed the baby in her sister's nervous arms. Judging by the sudden burst of exuberant cackles that rolled from Jorg as he grabbed for her finger, he was the infant who'd been awake when she entered the room.

"Hello Jorg," Elsa smiled, careful to support the baby's head and held him close. He was astonishingly warm, his pink skin almost rosy in hue much like Anna's had been when she was a newborn. He laughed and played with Elsa's hair, bright blue eyes always roaming around, while Anna lifted the other newborn from the crib and settled her against her chest, turning so that Elsa could see.

"And this is Thea. They were born holding each other," she explained with a laugh. "Well, more like Jorg was holding onto Thea's foot."

"Sounds like something you would do," Elsa said, sliding her sister a playful look. Anna made a scoffing sound and bounced little Thea in her arms, smiling like a woman who was holding the most precious piece of sunshine to have ever fallen to earth.

"Thea has Kristoff's eyes," Elsa observed, watching the little one blink and stare.

"She's got someone's, I can tell you that. Kristoff's eyes aren't that golden. And can you believe she hasn't cried once? She'll laugh and cackle with her brother, or when her father and I are around, but she never fusses."

"Mama said I was like that when I was little. You were the squaller."

"Makes sense," Anna shrugged, kissing little Thea on her chubby cheek.

"Prince Jorg and Princess Thea," Elsa smiled ruefully, rocking gently in the chair and watching Jorg attempt to eat her hair. "You two chose beautiful names. Isn't that right, little Jorg?" she laughed, making a snowflake dance on her fingertips in front of him. He cackled and reached for it which made the queen smile all the more. Suddenly she felt the layers of guilt, shame, anguish, heartache and heartbreak lifting off her shoulders as she continued to rock her nephew. Suddenly all seemed right like the earth had exhaled a trapped breath held far too long. Everything stopped spinning and became still as she held the baby in her arms and smiled. Looking up, the queen seemed to realize for the first time she was back home in her castle, back in the safety and familiarity of halls she'd tread a hundred thousand times and would walk a hundred thousand more, only now there would be the patter of little feet and true, pure laughter ringing in her home. For the first time, Elsa realized she had a family in every sense of the word. Here in her arms was proof of that. The legacy of the Frosberg line would live on in Anna's little ones, and she couldn't be more happy or relieved. Yes, there would be trials and tribulations to come, yes, there would be hard days, especially since she was losing the second most important thing in her life, but she could get through it, aided by the strength of her family.

Though the thought of Revel seemed to dim the bright glow of her newfound hope a bit. She knew she'd see him again, but for now he had his own family to contend with and reshape, his own kingdom to heal with Symon by his side. It was hard not imagining him standing next to her anymore. Elsa was under no disillusion Symon wouldn't take Revel back to Asham in order to straighten things out and restore him to his proper title as ruler, and it saddened her greatly. He was leaving after they'd just come together, which seemed cruelly ironic. They'd been through so much it seemed unfair all of that would end here and now after they'd both escaped the clutches of death, pulling each other back from the brink.

_There is a reason for all things, _Elsa thought, watching Anna make faces at Thea. _He was put in my life for a reason, so I cannot and will not believe that this is the end. We have so many more adventures to share, he and I._

A gentle knock on the door made both women turn. Kristoff poked his head in and suddenly lit up at the sight of his children. Elsa saw the fire burning in his eyes that was only matched by the fire in his wife's, the two of them capable of igniting the whole room with their near combustible love for one another.

"Brynja is here," he announced.

"Go ahead and let her in," Elsa nodded. Kristoff quickly opened the door and strode across the room, stopping next to Anna to wiggling a finger at Thea who stared at him with bright, inquisitive eyes. Brynja followed close on his heels after shutting the door, took one look at Elsa, and quickly approached, heavy leather bag in hand.

"Majesty," she said, bowing at the waist, "are you well enough to sit on a stool while I examine you, or would it be more comfortable for you to lie on a bed?

"A stool is fine Brynja," Elsa said, carefully getting to her feet. Kristoff gently took Jorg from her, the little one fussing a bit when the snowflake he'd been enamored with disappeared. The queen summoned another one and infused her will into it, handing it to Kristoff with a soft smile

Brynja grabbed a plush footstool and set it before the queen, easing her down and carefully undoing the sash around her waist with deft fingers, speaking as she worked. "Lieutenant Sigmund informed me you had sustained significant injuries while at the ice castle. I admit I was a little perplexed as to why you didn't return to Arendelle, but he assured me you were in the hands of the finest medical care in the mountains."

Elsa saw Kristoff stiffen, glancing at the queen nervously. She gave him a reassuring nod before turning to speak to Brynja. "Baron Kristoff has family in the mountains who are well versed in the arts of healing. They took excellent care of me."

The Physician quirked an eyebrow at the queen and turned to look at Kristoff, clearly unconvinced. To his credit, the mountain man looked back at her with a flat, non-pulsed stare, little Jorg happily sucking on the snowflake. With a shrug Brynja returned to her work, using a sharp pair of scissors to cut the shirt off so that Elsa wouldn't have to raise her arms. As the clothing fell away, the Physician looked closely at the carefully wrapped bandages, scrutinizing each fold and layer.

"Whoever bandaged you did a fine job."

"That was Revel. He aided in my recovery," Elsa said quietly, suppressing a crestfallen frown and keeping her queenly mask in place.

If Brynja had any feelings of ill will towards the former captain she hid them well, her own professional mask firmly in place. "He did a remarkable job, but I'm going to have to remove them in order to assess your injuries."

"Is there really a need for that?" Kristoff asked, watching over Brynja's shoulder.

"It is not meant as a slight against your family, Baron Kristoff," she said not looking up. "This will give me peace of mind that her Majesty is healing properly and that there will be no unforeseen complications in the future."

"It's is fine, Brynja. I suspected you would want to see for yourself what happened. I trust your judgment."

The Physician nodded once and began the arduous task of unwrapping each layer as carefully as if she were handling strips of fragile glass, starting at Elsa's shoulder and working down. Layer by layer the story of what the queen had been through began to take shape at the same moment the Physician uncovered something that would later he heralded as a miracle in the Arendelle. As the last bandage fell, the queen's naked torso on display for all eyes to see, an audible gasp rippled through the room but none sharper than the Physician.

"Saints above," she breathed, hand over her mouth, dark eyes scanning Elsa's bruised and lacerated skin. "How did you…how are you…" she sat back on her haunches, face slack with disbelief.

"It looks worse than it feels," Elsa commented, trying hard not to look at her sister even though she could feel Anna's eyes traveling across her skin like tongues of fire.

"No…no it's not that at all. It's…Queen Elsa, these wounds are a week old at the least. How is it that you sustained them only a few days ago?"

"How do you figure?" Elsa asked, trying to match the level of shock clearly evident in Brynja's voice, but she was also just as curious. There had been no mirrors in Pabbie's territory, so she could only judge her rate of healing by the wounds she could see and feel.

"The bruises on your neck and chest are nearly gone. It normally takes a week for a bruise, especially something that large, to dissipate, more with your level of fair skin. I suspect a few of your ribs were also broken during the attack?"

Elsa nodded, still trying hard not to look at Anna because she knew the pain she'd see carved into every inch of her sister like Fritz had carved into her. "According to my healers, my chest was fractured, I had multiple broken ribs, severe bruising on my right side, a gash on my left and a long laceration across my back," she said mechanically, eyes straight ahead.

"I see no indication you have any broken bones save for some mild swelling along the rib-line," she said, running her thumb gently along the bruise in order to see if she could feel any bumps or divots indicating a break. "Are you experiencing any shortness of breath or pain in your lungs?

"No, only a little pain in my back if I inhale too deeply.

"That would be your skin pulling at the stitches," Brynja explained. "Forgive the intimate question, but how are your bowel movements? Is there any indication of blood?"

"None that I noticed."

"So no internal bleeding. That is good." The woman placed the back of her hand against Elsa's forehead, feeling for fever. "You're a little warm."

"I walked up here," the queen replied by way of explanation. She caught Anna's sharp look even in her peripheral vision that was matched by the sharp look the Physician gave her.

"Any form of climbing should be kept to a minimum, Majesty. At least until the stitches come out," Brynja advised with careful neutrality.

"I'll take that under advisement," was Elsa's cool reply.

The Physician merely nodded, not presuming to tell the queen what she could and could not do, but still voicing her professional opinion. "These three scabs in the center of your chest, did something puncture the skin?"

"That was caused by a boot heel," Elsa answered quietly. She was impressed by Brynja's ability to take such news with a straight face, though she thought she spotted a flicker of rage in the big woman's eyes as she continued to examine her patient.

"These are finger marks on your throat," she observed quietly, making a slow circuit of the queen to better gauge the extent of the damage done to her. Elsa merely nodded, no explanation needed as to why those were there, and gritted her teeth when Brynja touched a sensitive area on her back.

"This suturing is excellent, albeit a little rough and irritated in places."

"Again, you have Revel to thank for that."

"I'll be sure to thank him in person. He was the man who brought my queen back to her kingdom safely," the Physician mumbled, hunching low to take a better look at Elsa's side. After a moment she withdrew with a perplexed exhale. "Majesty, I don't know how this happened or what you were healed with, but truly I've just witnessed a miracle first hand. If I didn't already know you personally, I would have thought this a fantastic lie. No wounds heal this quickly…ever. By all rights, you should be bedridden if not already deceased, pardon my bluntness."

"I have to agree with you. This is truly a miracle."

"Baron Kristoff," the Physician turned to the mountain man with a curious look, "do you know what herbs or ointments your family would have used? I'm quite interested in knowing the formulas. If whatever they used can be replicated, it would be a great advancement in the medical field."

"I…um…I don't really know."

"They are your family and you lived with them for most of your life, yes? Surly you—"

"My family is very guarded about their medicines, especially my grandfather."

"But you never saw any herbs picked, or a poultice boiled? I can tell there was some type of salve put over the queen's wounds that—"

"Brynja, enough," Elsa said with gentle firmness. "I'm sure if Kristoff knew he would tell you, so let us leave the matter alone. I understand your curiosity, but the mountain people seclude themselves for a reason. Let us respect them and my brother-in-law by accepting that this was a miracle of healing."

Brynja didn't look convinced or willing to drop the matter, but a sharp look from the queen told her the issue was to be dropped. So she nodded silently and opened her leather satchel, withdrawing a number of ointments but deciding against applying any more bandages.

"The wounds on your side and back are nearly healed, save for a few sensitive areas. I suspect we can remove the stitches in a day or two, so for now we'll allow the skin to breathe a bit. An ointment balm will be enough to make certain infection does not set in, and I humbly suggest taking a warm bath as soon as possible. The water will loosen the sinew and allow me to take the sutures out without causing you much discomfort."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to have a bath drawn later this evening."

"Very good, Majesty," she said with a shallow down. Then she turned to Anna. "Princess, how are you feeling?"

"I…great. Very little pain though I'm still massively sore."

"That is to be expected. I'll be sure to leave some more tea for the soreness as well as a balm that can be applied to sensitive areas." Glancing at the queen, Brynja said, "Your sister is as much a miracle as you are. Both little one's decided to come out at the same time, and we feared the tearing it would cause would lead to fatal bleeding."

Elsa snapped her head around to look at her sister who winced and gently laid a dozing Thea back in her crib. "You didn't tell me that."

"It…I…you'd just come back! It really wasn't the time to discuss…that."

"We'll talk later then," the queen said with a light frown. Another knock at the door pulled her attention away from a flushing Anna. Kristoff handed Jorg to his mother and went to get the door while Brynja had Elsa stand so that she could apply the ointment. The queen heard Gerda's voice and turned over her shoulder to greet her when the service matron pulled up short and gasped, dropping what she was carrying. Kristoff swooped in and managed to save the tray, upsetting a few glasses but keeping everything relatively in place.

"Sweet Mother Mary," she wheezed, hands covering her mouth. Elsa didn't realize tears could come on so fast to the service matron, but Gerda's eyes welled with them almost instantly as her wide, shocked eyes stared at the ragged, slightly pink line across the queen's back. Elsa graciously accepted a silk robe from the Physician and covered herself before moving gingerly towards the service matron. With the binding gone she could move more freely, but she also had to watch how far she stretched or moved lest she pull at the stitches.

"It's alright, Gerda. I'm alright."

Gerda hesitantly met her half way, bypassing regal formality and cupping the queen's face in her shaking hands. "My sweet girl, I heard what happened but never thought…" she trailed off, staring at the fingermarks on Elsa's throat and the yellow bruising around three circular scabs in the shape of a triangle visible in the V of her robe.

"I'm really alright, Gerda. Just a little sore and tired. And hungry," she added, looking longingly at the pastries on the tray in Kristoff's hands. That seemed to snap the service matron out of whatever emotional stupor she'd been headed towards. Shaking her head, she withdrew a step and took a breath, calm once more despite the tears still shimmering in her eyes.

"I will have a meal prepared at once and a bath drawn. Don't worry about coming down for dinner; I'll have it brought up for the three of you."

"Thank you, Gerda, but that's not—"

"I insist, Majesty. Princess Anna, I'll also have two bottles brought up for the little ones."

"Oh no, that's fine," Anna flushed. "I'll try feeding them myself again." When Elsa gave her sister a confused look her face reddened all-the-more. "I didn't expect the um…natural feeding to be so…uh…uncomfortable? Strange feeling? Weird?"

Elsa realized what she was alluding to and laughed good-naturedly. "You're a new mother, Anna. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"You're sister is right," Gerda agreed as she hustled to the door. "It's a matter of practice and instinct."

"I must agree with the service matron," Brynja said, gathering her things and making for the door as well. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'll return tomorrow to check your stitches, Majesty. If they appear healed enough, which I assume they will be, I'll remove them. For now, rest."

"Thank you, the both of you," Elsa said with a kind smile. The two women departed, leaving the royal family alone once again. "So, tell me about this birth I missed," the queen said after a moment of silence, easing herself back down into the rocking chair.

The rest of the evening was spent in Anna's room exchanging stories about what had happened while the other was away. Elsa explained in detail what had actually happened with Pabbie and the trolls, leaving nothing out, not even the vision she'd had of Saja and the knowledge of how Arendelle had been founded. Kristoff and her sister listened in rapt silence, asking only a few questions but remaining relative quiet until the end of her tale. Then it was Anna's turn to explain about her journey back to the castle and the birth of Jorg and Thea.

"It was…more painful than I imagined it would be," she said sitting on her bed while little Thea suckled happily. Anna shifted, adjusting to the feeling of a little mouth clamped around her sensitive nipple.

"She almost broke my hand," Kristoff snorted, shooting Elsa a look.

"I did not!"

To emphasize his point he raised his hand to show off his own set of bruises. "And the whole castle could hear her screaming, and let me tell you, she could make a sailor blush."

Anna screwed up her face and looked away, unable to keep the red from her cheeks. "You try pushing out two little melons through something as big as a fist and _not_ scream," she muttered. "And I wouldn't make a sailor blush," she added indignantly.

"No, forgive me, you'd make a pirate turn away." Kristoff barely had time to duck the pillow headed straight for his head, laughing while he did.

"Shut up," Anna groused but couldn't hide her grin under her forced frown.

When Elsa playfully teased her sister about her decision to scale a mountain while heavily pregnant, Anna explaining why with exasperated sighs and exaggerated reasoning, it was then that Elsa received the news about Olaf and Marshmallow. It wasn't like her sister had been flippant with the sad news. Anna had actually teared up at the memory of little Olaf dissolving into nothingness in her arms, three little chunks of coal and a carrot the only things left behind. The shock Elsa felt was like a fist to the gut, the air rushing from her lungs. They were both gone? It wasn't hard to imagine, what with what had happened to her castle after Fritz hit her with the pepper powder, but she'd never even entertained the idea that her sudden blinding and disconnection with her magic could destroy two sentient creatures. She felt their loss physically and swallowed her tears, determined to make things right as soon as she was well enough. But the most concerning thing wasn't necessarily her ability to use her magic to build them, what Elsa feared the most was rediscovering _how_ she'd done it. Both Olaf and Marshmallow had been created during highly emotional points in her life, so capturing and recreating that spark of was something she'd have to puzzle out.

The three of them continued their conversation, which had taken on a bit of a somber feel, until Gerda returned with multiple silver trays laden with food stacked on wheeled carts. She and a small army of servants arranged the trays before scuttling out, Gerda announcing that she would have a bath drawn once the queen was finished. So the royal family tucked in, Elsa realizing she was much more hungry than she previously thought and shamelessly devouring her portion at breakneck speed and managing to polish off a second helping before her hunger abated and she began to actually relax, content with the weight of proper food in her stomach.

As promised, a bath was drawn once the dishes were cleared away, and the queen sank under the steaming hot water in her large, claw-footed tub with an exhausted yet blissful sigh, the ache in her joints and skin vanishing the instant she submerged. Anna remained close despite Elsa's reassurance she was fine, helping her sister soap her hair and scrubbing herself clean. Removing herself once the water began to cool, the sisters both smoothed on the balm Brynja had left with Gerda to give to the queen once she was bathed. Anna was hesitant at first to touch the stitches, but swallowed her unease and smeared the mint infused ointment across her sister's back while Elsa got the gash on her side. Together the two returned to the queen's quarters, younger sister supporting older sister as they tottered down the hallway. As tired as she was Elsa didn't want to sleep, but found it almost impossible to keep her eyes open once she'd slid into the heavenly comfort of her familiar bed and cool sheets. Rolling into her less damaged right side, she held onto her sister's hand until her eyes slid shut and her body relaxed into sleep. Anna stayed with her for a while, refusing to leave until she was sure Elsa was in a deep sleep.

"I love you," she whispered for the hundredth time, kissing her on the forehead and pulling the sheets up over her shoulder. "I'll see you in the morning."

It was unclear how long the queen had been asleep, if felt like minutes but it had clearly been hours, but she blinked awake sometime in the early morning hours to the sound of something being shut. Blearily, she raised her head and stared into the darkness of her room, her ears picking up the scuffle of boots on hardwood. Something shifted near her window and a spike of fear lanced through her until a familiar figure stepped into the light and her fear combusted into a flare of warmth that seemed to center around her brand.

"Sneaking around like that is going to get you killed one of these days," she said, carefully pushing herself up and leaning against the mound of pillows put behind her by her sister. "Why not use my actual door?" She caught the glint of Revel's teeth as he grinned.

"I like using the passage. Makes things more mysterious. Plus, it's not like I don't know the patrol schedule like the back of my hand."

"That could be a worrisome statement if I didn't already know you so well," Elsa retorted with a smile of her own. Despite only getting a few hours of sleep she felt unexpectedly rested, most of her aches a thing of the past.

"Good thing you know me," he laughed and climbed onto the bed. Crawling atop her, he kissed her deeply before withdrawing and sitting back on his legs, fidgeting with something in his hands she couldn't quite make out in the darkness, but it sounded like parchment. Despite his easy smile, Elsa could tell there was something weighing heavily on her mind and her previous joy at seeing him faded a bit.

"You've come to say goodbye, haven't you?"

"I…" he seemed to lose whatever he was going to say, looking down at whatever was in his hands. "There's a lot going on, and not all of it I agree with."

"Such as?"

"Symon wants me to return to Asham with him on the morning tide—"

"Which you should do," Elsa said before he could finish. Revel looked surprised and slightly hurt, his shoulders slumping.

"You want me to leave?" he asked in a small, almost broken voice.

"What? No!" the queen gasped and pushed herself into a sitting position, grabbing his wrist. A crackle of energy traveled down her arm and climbed his, both of them shivering. Under his loose gray shirt Elsa could see the mark on his chest start to glow but chose to ignore it for now. "I want you to stay, but I know about the duties of a royal. Your brother is right. You need to go to your kingdom."

"You mean return to a kingdom I don't know? One that might not welcome me back? I understand Symon's logic, but I've not been to Asham in fifteen years. So much has changed, and I might not be well received by the people."

Elsa noticed he said _the_ people and not _my_ people. "Asham in your birthright," she argued.

"But Arendelle is my home," he concluded, scooting closer and taking her hand in his. "This is all I've known, and I don't want to leave it behind…to leave you behind."

"Revel, there's so much that needs to be done in Asham. You can't turn away what's rightfully yours because of me."

She'd expected to see sadness or maybe even irritation on his shadowed face, but instead she saw something sparkle in his eyes like a kind of crafty mischief that immediately made her both wary and curious. "What are you thinking?" she frowned, brow creasing.

"I'm glad you asked," he grinned, teeth flashing in the silvery moonlight, "because I have an idea. It's going to take a lot of work, and I'll need your help along with Symon's if we're going to pull this off. I've not told him about it yet, but I think he'll agree with what I have planned."

"I'm not sure I follow," Elsa frowned, heart starting to thump in her chest.

"I'll explain everything," Revel said taking a seat next to her, planting a kiss on her forehead as he handed her the piece of parchment he'd brought with him sealed with a red wax seal. Carefully she broke the seal and unrolled the parchment, her eyes going wide as Revel lit the lamp on her nightstand and she read what was written in his scrawling handwriting.

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><p><strong>AN: **Whew, that was a massive piece! I totally didn't want this chapter to be this big but something happened while writing and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. XD So! One more to go! 23 is going to be much shorter than what we've been reading thus far, and the epilogue will be about as large. As always, please let me know what you thought of this chapter. Review, review, review! And please come visit me on my tumblr. I love talking with all of you =)


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** So here we are, the last official chapter before the epilogue. I'm honestly beside myself...I never thought I'd reach this point. I believe I need to issue a soul-deep, heartfelt thank you to all my readers who made this experience a wonderful one. You have all been so kind and supportive, critiquing my work where it needed it while still remaining kind and blessedly forgiving. I know this isn't the exact end, we have one more dip before the rollercoaster draws to a close, but I just needed to say thank you for everything, and I hope this chapter is everything you hoped it would be. As always, please review. I love hearing what you all have to say.

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><p>Anna watched her sister make quick circuits of the room, her footfalls pounding like a smith's hammer against the marble floor. She knew the queen was nervous, could see it in the tightness of her shoulders, the near permanent crease of her brow, and the way she kept opening and closing her hands. More than once, Elsa had to dispel a thick layer of frost that seemed to follow wherever she tread, searching fingers of cold spreading across the black and gold marbled floor and climbing the high, ornate walls.<p>

"You're going to wear a track in the floor if you keep pacing like this," the princess commented lightly, tracking her sister with her eyes.

"I…I don't know if I can do this," Elsa admitted, another burst of ice spiraling out from under her heeled feet.

_Get it together, _she silently admonished herself, hating how she felt like a frightened rabbit. _Control it…control it…_

"You'll be fine," her sister soothed with a smile, keeping her distance until the ice had dissipated so she didn't accidentally slip. Anna learned a long time ago that the combination of marble and ice resulted in a less than ideal surface for heeled shoes and didn't want to fall flat on her ass today.

"I hate public speaking and this…" Elsa waved a vague hand at the doors in front of her, trepidation flaring in her chest. Why was it that whenever she glanced at the tall wood structures she felt like she were staring down a charging bull? With each glance they would grow taller and more foreboding.

_It's not what's in front of it…it's what's waiting for me behind it._

"But you're so good at it," Anna grinned broadly, trying to take the edge off her sister's nervousness.

"I fake being good at it," Elsa corrected hurriedly, opening and closing her hands, trying to maintain control of her magic. "But under the surface I'm petrified."

"You're not going to be alone," Anna reassured as she fell into step alongside her, looping their arms together. "We'll all be right here."

"What if I stumble?" the queen worried aloud, trying to catch her breath, aware that her heart was a battering ram behind her ribs. "What if I forget what I'm supposed to say? Anna, this is massively important, and I could be made to look like the biggest fool in the kingdom! What would Bishop Arren say if I—"

Anna cut her off by placing a finger against her lips, silencing her. The princess could see the utter terror in the queen's near white eyes and smiled warmly, resting a hand against Elsa's cool cheek. "Elsa, dear, you need to breathe."

"But I—"

"Nope, breathe first and speak second," Anna insisted, not removing her finger until Elsa had taken a calming breath through her nose, which seemed to work a little. Some of the tension dissipated from her coiled shoulders but none of it left her bright eyes. "Good, now listen to me. You are going to be _fine._ Alright? _Fine._ And I'm going to tell you why. First, you memorized what you were going to say months ago. Second, no one would ever think you're a fool or at least say it out loud." Elsa made a face at her sister, but Anna pressed on, "And third, Bishop Arren isn't going to say a damn thing and you know it. Hell, I imagine he's going to be the most subdued today."

"How do you figure?" Elsa inquired with a sheepish half-smile, focusing on Anna's warm arm looped around hers. She always felt calmer with her sister near as if Anna were her personal lodestone, and today was no different.

"Because today is—"

Both women turned when someone cleared their throat behind them. Kristoff stepped into the center of the circular chamber, a wide smile dominating his face. He was dressed in a formal suit of expertly tailored black cotton with forest green embroidery, accented with a green vest and soft gray undershirt. Silver buttons, polished to a gleaming shine, held his jacket firmly closed over his tight torso, cutting him a fine figure. Elsa caught her sister giving her husband a look that was almost predatory, hunger burning in her bright blue eyes as they scrutinized him from the tips of his shined black boots to his oiled hair. Meanwhile, Kristoff returned his wife's stare with a hungry, passionate one of his own. She was dressed in a formal gown of purple and white—complementing her husband's chosen colors— her royal purple bodice, embroidered with silver scrawling vines with snowflakes replacing the customary floral design, cinched tight around her once again narrow waist.

"You look beautiful," Kristoff complimented stepping up next to her and kissing her lightly on the cheek.

"And you look dashing, husband-of-mine. Where are the little ones?"

"Gerda has them."

"Good. I hope they behave today," Anna sighed. Being a first time parent was more difficult that she imagined it would be. Keeping up with her children had turned into a daunting task but one neither she nor Kristoff would trade it for the world. As exhausted as they might be, they were constantly overwhelmed with wondrous joy and limitless love for their little ones. Jorg and Thea were growing like weeds, their once frail little pink bodies filling out and firming up at an almost alarming rate. Thea had already figured out how to crawl on her own, exploring the world around her with her wide, almost amber eyes; while Jorg contented himself with flipping from his back to his stomach, using his arms to push himself into a sitting position or drag his little body around, cackling at everything. The prince and princess had their off days, keeping their parents and the castle staff, Elsa included, up late into the wee hours of the morning, but they were loved and cherished by all and could, more often than not, be found being fawned over by half the female staff.

The tall, wood doors before the three suddenly creaked opened fractionally, bathing the chamber in clear, golden light. Elsa felt her heart jump into her throat, a burst of ice swirling around her feet. Kai emerged and bowed to the royal party, his smile barely hidden under his mask of professionalism. He coughed once into his gloved hand to regain his cool composure before speaking.

"Princess Anna, if you would please take your place," he said stepping aside but blocked enough of the room that Elsa couldn't see beyond him even though she craned her neck in order to catch a glimpse of how many people were in attendance. The princess nodded once, pecking her husband once on the jaw before wrapping her arms around her sister.

"Just breathe," Anna whispered and squeezed her tight, immensely grateful that her sister's wounds had completely healed and scarred over. Elsa returned the hug, burying her face in the crook of her sister's neck and allowed herself a moment to cling. Anna held on until Elsa was done before withdrawing and sliding through the gap between the doors. Kai nodded once to the queen, still trying to keep his smile from showing, and motioned for the doors to be firmly shut behind him. The golden light disappeared, plunging the chamber once again into semi-darkness. Elsa felt her sister's absence like a sliver of ice in her heart and took a shaking breath to calm herself as her eyes adjusted to the absence of light once again.

"I don't think I've gotten to tell you yet that you look stunning," Kristoff commented, stepping next to the queen and taking her sister's place, even going so far as to loop her arm around his and tuck her hand in the crook of his elbow. Elsa took solace in his nearness and leaned against her brother-in-law's thick forearm, all the while feeling a brilliant blush warm her face. She looked down at the flowing dress beneath her, pulse jumping in her throat.

"Thank you," she managed.

"Are you nervous?" he asked, turning her towards the sealed double doors. It was almost time.

"Terrified," she whispered in response, tightening her hands into fists to keep her magic at bay. She couldn't release it…not yet.

"You shouldn't be," Kristoff smiled, leaning down and kissing her gently on the temple. "But I know all brides are nervous on their wedding day."

_You have no idea_, Elsa thought, swallowing hard against her dry throat.

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><p><em>I have an idea. <em>That's what Revel had told her almost twelve months ago when he'd snuck into her room the night of her return to Arendelle after the drama that had taken place on North Mountain. He'd crawled onto her bed, his body almost vibrating with nervous energy, and handed her a scroll sealed with a red wax seal. Elsa had opened it cautiously without an inkling of what was held within. As her eyes skimmed what he'd written, lamplight dancing across the parchment, they'd grown large with shock quickly chased by disbelief.

_I, Revel Handler Spezerei, rightful king of Asham due to royal degree made by the late Gregor Spezerei, in lieu of the discovery of my father's murder at the hands of my brother, Adrek Gerard Spezerei, do hereby renounce my title as king and bestow it upon my brother, Symon Demetri Spezerei. As befitting the title, Prince Symon now holds royal dominion over the kingdom and all its inhabitants. I grant him access to the royal treasury and archives, as well as Asham's fleet and military generals, to be used at his discretion. I sign this degree in both blood and ink, as witnessed by Queen Elsa of Arendelle and her Royal Chamberlain. May God bless his rule and grant him a long and prosperous reign as king. _

It had taken her two times reading the letter to fully digest what she'd just read, Revel waiting patiently on the edge of the bed, fidgeting with his hands. At the bottom of the parchment was his signature scrawled in flowing black letters. Right under that was the same signature only this one was the deep burgundy that blood became once it dried upon parchment. Elsa slowly lowered the letter and turned to him, a deep frown creasing her brow.

"Revel, you can't do this. You can't just give up your title without any prior warning or reason," she blurted before he even had a chance to open his mouth. The queen became even more perplexed and confused when a sheepish smile curled the corners of his lips, accompanied by a bright flush in his ears. Not surprisingly, Elsa felt a warm flutter against her brand and rolled her shoulder unconsciously to dispel the sensation.

"Keep reading," he said trying to keep his eyes forward but failing miserably. He kept shooting her expectant, side-long glances.

"I…there's nothing else here," she frowned, looking down at the parchment. She even went as far as flipping it over and searching the back for something she might have missed but there was nothing there. After a moment, Elsa realized the parchment itself was much larger than it needed to be, Revel's message taking up only a small portion at the top. She noticed that under her thumb the paper was raised, suggesting that there was indeed more. Her frown deepened when she unrolled rest of the scroll and felt the earth shift underneath her, leaving her in stunned silence. Stuck against the parchment with a bead of red wax was a simple silver ring. She didn't know how many times her head snapped from the glinting oval to her beloved and back, but eventually the gravity of what was happening settled on her shoulders and her hand slid over her mouth in shock.

"Elsa Frosberg," Revel began, removing the ring and excess wax, shifting so that he was in front of her on his knees. He could almost see his reflection in her cerulean eyes they were so wide and bright. Gently, he took her left hand in his and slid the band over her ring-finger, the metal surprisingly warm against her cool skin. "I really had something more elaborate and witty to say to you, but I guess pure honesty will have to suffice. I love you. You are my moon and stars, my breath of life that I can't live without. I love you more today than I did yesterday, and I will love you more tomorrow than I do today. In you I've found my missing piece and it only took nearly losing you to realize that. I can't go another moment without you in my life. The choice will always be yours to make, and if you choose otherwise I can—"

"Yes," she exhaled from behind her fingers, her quivering voice even a shock to her own ears.

"Yes?" he blinked, as shocked as she was. "I mean…yes! Wait, yes to what? Yes, to me leaving or yes to you—"

Her sudden lunge cut him off and he fell on his back, her lips against his, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She kissed him with an almost desperate passion which he returned tenfold, holding her close despite her injuries. After what seemed both an eternity and half-second, the two withdrew, but before Revel could speak Elsa set her finger against his lips, her face suddenly serious.

"Revel Handler Spezerei, I will marry you but—"

"There's a but to all of this?" he frowned speaking from behind her finger, his bubbling joy suddenly smothered under a blanket of unease.

"You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?"

"Actually, yes I did," he admitted with a shrug.

Elsa rolled her eyes, finger still in place. "There are a few conditions we must discuss first."

"I…um…alright." The former captain felt ice in his veins as he gently helped his love sit back against the mound of pillows behind her. "Such as?"

"First," Elsa said removing her finger from his lips and holding it up, "you need to get everything squared away with your brother."

"I was going to do that anyway," Revel assured her with a thin smile.

"Not just about your proposal, Revel. You need to explain to him about _why_ you're abdicating from the throne. By all rights you should be king, so this is going to be a shock to both Symon and Asham. Your country lost its king while Symon lost that and his older brother in one day. Asham also lost the monarch they've had for fifteen years. This process isn't going to be easy for anyone, and you need to understand that."

"I do understand," Revel sighed, sitting back and crossing his legs in front of him. He understood more than Elsa gave him credit about what he was actually doing to his little brother. Symon would make a good king, but getting him to the throne would be a daunting challenge. And Elsa was right, it wasn't fair of him to simply write a letter of abdication and be done with it. There were more steps that needed to be done, and the one he dreaded most was the one he knew he had to take.

"I'll have to return to Asham with Symon in order to set the record straight."

The queen felt fear flare in her chest but fought it down with a hard swallow. "I know. It's the right thing to do and will make the process for your brother that much easier. You've got your father's letter of disinheritance and your letter of abdication. Both are good starts, but it'll take time to sort this whole thing out."

"More if we don't have a body," Revel said quietly.

"I think I can help with that," Elsa replied just as quietly. "I'll send a search party into the mountains to look for Adrek and Fritz. If there's anything left of either of them after my castle went down, I'm sure they'll be in the rubble."

Revel nodded woodenly, the idea that his elder brother was dead still hard to comprehend. He'd spent a greater majority of his life running from the man he'd eventually crafted into an imaginary boogeyman capable of appearing anywhere as if he were some malicious demon. But the former captain knew his brother was dead and that Adrek's shade wouldn't haunt him…at least he hoped that was the case. Revel wasn't as certain as he'd like to be what with him still unable to shake the weird split vision he'd acquired after his brush with Saja in the mountains.

"You said _conditions_," he said after a long, reflective silence. "What else must I do to prove my love and devotion to you?"

Had Elsa not seen the slight curl to his lips she would have thought he was being serious. Instead, she smiled along with him. "Settling the matter with your brother will be the easiest of your tasks, I'm afraid," she said, adopting a regal cast to her voice and lifting her chin slightly. "After that is said and done, you will then have to ask my sister's permission to marry me."

"Wait…are you serious?" Revel chuckled, eyebrows rising into his hairline.

"Perfectly serious," Elsa replied with a slight arch to her eyebrow.

"Well then, that's not so difficult."

"My sister _and_ Kristoff."

At this bit of information Revel blanched and screwed up his face. "That might be a problem. Kristoff and I…don't really see eye-to-eye on a lot of things."

"Then my love, you will have to become persuasive. If this family is to work I need to know everyone is comfortable with one another."

"He punched me in the face because he thought I'd broken your heart," Revel argued, pointing to a healing bruise on his right cheek.

Elsa glanced at it but spread her hands helplessly. "I assume this was after your great escape, yes? Well then, he had every right to hit you because you _had_ broken my heart." The suddenly stricken look in her beloved's eyes gave her pause, and Elsa berated herself for stating that sad fact with such flippant casually. Leaning forward, she took his hand in hers and squeezed. "Hey, Revel, look at me. I'm sorry, that came out wrong. We were both acting stupidly that day. I won't lie to you and say that I wasn't hurt by your departure, and you know why, but we've already forgiven each other a thousand, thousand times. I'm not angry with you anymore, so I hope you're not still angry with me."

"Never," he replied quietly, brushing her knuckles with his lips.

"Then the matter is settled," she declared, pushing herself up onto her knees in order to be closer to him. Bodies flush against one-another, she took his face in her hands, her thumbs stroking his cheekbones. A warm smile spread across her face, white teeth glinting in the lamplight. "I will marry you, Revel. We may have a long road to travel, but we'll do it together."

"Together," he whispered his consent, turning his face so that he kissed the palm of her left hand. "I'm here, my Queen."

Elsa nodded, moving so her face was less than a hairs-breadth from his, basking in the warmth of his closeness and drinking in as much as she could. "I feel you, my King."

They lay together that night tangled in each other's arms, savoring the closeness of the other and fearing the weeks to come. In nearly nine months the two hadn't gone more than a few days without seeing the other, and the idea that Revel would have to depart for Asham either on the morrow or the day following was a bitter tonic to swallow. It was necessary but that didn't mean it didn't still sting. So the lovers cradled each other, pining for the day they could come together as one yet savoring the moments they had.

Still, neither was able to escape the constant companion of nerves and unease as the uncertain future drifted ever closer with each second past. Revel had been riding waves of almost utter petrification before and after asking for Elsa's hand. In truth, he'd expected their engagement to move along at a much faster rate, his eagerness and slightly naïve assumptions getting the best of him, but the queen had accepted his proposal with the price of conditions that had to be met before anything could begin. He was reluctant at first, wanting to put his past behind him and step into the future he could only see with Elsa by his side, but again his beloved had shown she was wise beyond her years and grasping a more grounded view of their situation. So Revel had returned to Asham with Symon four days after his and the queen's return to Arendelle, boarding the royal vessel after a prolonged good-bye.

"I'll see you soon," Elsa had said, stepping back from their embrace but refusing to let go of his hands. He could feel her shiver and it had nothing to do with the cool sea breeze buffeting them as they stood in front of one another on the wharf. Revel knew the queen's misgivings towards ships and could see the fear in her eyes as they swept over the massive three-masted, low-belly vessel.

"Hopefully it'll only be a month or two," he said, running his fingers through her unbound hair, smiling at her loveliness in the early morning sun. The queen had risen early with him—the two hardly sleeping a wink— and refused to leave his side until he boarded Symon's ship. Revel was still unable to fully come to terms with the fact that four days ago Elsa had hardly been able to stand, but now she only winced when she pulled at her freshly healed stitches.

"Take all the time you need, Revel. You're handling delicate matters that mustn't be rushed. Also, you need time to heal as well. It's been fifteen years since you've been to Asham, and I'm sure you'll want to visit your father's grave," she surmised quietly.

Revel was silent for a long time, his thoughts turned inward. When at last he spoke his voice was laden with sadness and uncertainty. "I don't know if I have the courage. After so many years of guilt…what am I supposed to say to the man who raised me but ultimately died because of _my _mistake?"

"You have more courage than you give yourself credit, love," Elsa soothed. She knew she couldn't make him believe her, but she could at least try. "We all need closure, and you are not an exception to that. This is a wound, I think, that is in sore need of healing and what better time to start than on your return trip to Asham?"

"You're right," Revel admitted after another stretch of silence, a small smile touching his lips. "I can't promise that I won't try to get back to you as soon as possible, but I'll take some time and visit Father. But being so far from you—from my home— is going to kill me," he sighed, glancing over his shoulder when a deckhand threw a large coil of ropes down and began scaling the rigging net, small dagger clenched between his teeth as he made for the fore yard and the snugly secured sail.

"We're not so far apart," Elsa replied and gently touched the brand on his chest, smiling when it warmed under her touch and began to glow under his shirt. Her own brand reacted a half-second later, the faint flutter of her beloved's heartbeat pulsing against her marked skin. Revel sensed the same fluttering and smiled in return, covering her hand with his and lifting her chin so that he could kiss her one more time.

"I've never done well with distance," he admitted.

"It will be a good lesson for the both of us, I think. Plus, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder," the queen replied with a forced smile that didn't have the strength to reach her eyes. Revel knew better. She was merely speaking the words with no real feeling behind them.

_Whoever said that ludicrous statement clearly understands nothing about forced separation, _the former captain thought sadly.

They would have said more, probably devoting most of the morning to dragging their departure along, but Symon appeared at the railing and called for Revel to board before they lost the tide. With so much reluctance it almost physically hurt, the former captain pulled away after stealing one last kiss and jogged up the gangplank before it was raised. Elsa raised her hand in farewell, and Revel did the same, watching her form grow farther and farther away as the ship slowly moved out of the harbor and into open sea. Only when he lost sight of her did he move away from the railing and join his brother in his cabin for a long overdue talk about what was to happen once they reached Asham's shores.

The voyage to Asham lasted roughly three weeks. They'd run into unfavorable weather a week into their journey, the large ship heaving as it was tossed like a child's toy on rough seas, the wind a constant, howling companion for nearly three days. Not as much as an accomplished sailor as Symon appeared to be, Revel did his best to help where he could; straining against water-slick ropes and fighting for balance on the rolling deck as wave after wave crashed over the railing, soaking everyone on board as thoroughly as the rain that slammed down upon their heads from the boiling heavens above.

"The sea makes you feel alive, does it not, brother?" Symon called from the foredeck, flanked on either side by sailors in soaked blue shirts as they attempted to haul in the snapping sails.

"If by alive you mean I want to vomit for the rest of eternity, then yes!" Revel shouted over the roar of the wind, his hands, despite weathering years of combat training, weren't as strong as the sailors swarming around him.

"Pull tight, you yard apes!" the first mate hollered, swinging down from the rigging above with the assuredness of a man well attuned to weathering sea storms. "Get those sails tied up or this ship will be a fucking kite within the hour!"

Seasoned sailors scrambled about as the first mate continued to scream orders and watch as his men climbed the rigging like squirrels, hauling in the sails and lashing them in place. Eventually the squall passed them by, the seas returning to a more placid ebb and flow, and the voyage was met with no other complications until they reach Asham's harbor two weeks later where a different storm had been brewing in the kingdom that broke the moment Revel stepped foot off his brother's ship. He was swept up in a rip-current of political drama and public outcry that left him reeling more so than the squall had. Apparently, there were those who had not forgotten his supposed crimes and were eager to see justice done.

So the return trip to his homeland which should have taken no more than a month dragged into two, then three, then four. There were meetings to attend, arguments to be made, counterarguments thrown onto the arguments, and through it all Revel weathered the ongoing maelstrom of distrust and discord circulating throughout the kingdom. Eventually, Symon was able to argue his case and the stain of treason hanging above Revel's head was expunged, proving to his elder brother that, while he might be young, Symon possessed the making of a truly gifted ruler who would only add to his kingdom's greatness. Still, the loss of Asham's current king left the people, noble and commoner alike, stunned but surprisingly callous. Arendelle's search party had only been able to locate Adrek's body amongst the rubble of the fallen ice castle, Fritz's corps remained unrecovered, and the late king was returned to his kingdom and buried with shockingly little fanfare. Apparently, Adrek wasn't as beloved by his people as Fritz had bragged, his death hardly registering with most of the common folk who'd suffered under the yoke of high taxes and unfair laws for years. The nobles mourned, as was proper and expected, but even their tears and morose grieving seemed a little forced.

It was at Adrek's burial that Revel was finally able to face his father, walking with Symon to Gregor's tomb located in a sprawling garden just south of the castle. As was customary with Asham royalty they were buried in a truly massive mausoleum, each casket sealed into the walls and marked with an ornate plaque. Outside the enormous structure a statue of Gregor had been erected alongside the previously lost kings, his features softer than Revel remembered but no less welcoming as he stood with his left hand resting atop an ornate sword while his right clutched a book of law.

"One of the only kind things he did after Father's murder," Symon said after Adrek's casket had been positioned into its predetermined place in the mausoleum wall and the meager funeral party had departed. "He commissioned the best masons in the kingdom to sculpt father's likeness, and his money was well spent."

Revel stared up at the marble rendering of his father for a long while, remembering how the man's cheeks used to turn red and his face creased with lines when he laughed, or how his voice could cut through the roar of any crowd, before silently reentering the mausoleum and finding the plaque that marked Gregor's final resting place.

"I'll leave you to your thoughts," Symon mumbled quietly, clapping his brother on the shoulder. "And I'll leave the guards just in case. Come find me when you're done."

"Thank you," Revel said over his shoulder. He didn't know whether it was his imagination or not, but he could swear he heard his father's voice humming a familiar tune from his childhood, the notes rising and falling like ocean tides within the crypt. Revel closed his eyes and listened, feeling something alight gently on his shoulder that felt like a hand. Again he wasn't unsure whether it was his imagination or not, but there was comfort in the familiar pressure. Not unnerved in the least, the former captain breathed in the stale air of the crypt, a faint smile on his lips.

"Hello Father," he said opening his eyes and staring down at the plaque under his hands but speaking to whatever spirit was in the crypt with him, "I've come home. It only took me fifteen years and a lifetime of running, but I'm here now. Guess you could say the prodigal son has returned," he chuckled and felt tears sting his eyes which he wiped away quickly. "We have a lot to catch up on, so I guess I should start from the beginning..."

He didn't know how long he'd stayed in the mausoleum, but the sun was beginning to set by the time he emerged, bathing the sprawling countryside and distant vineyards in soft orange light. A small garrison of guards waiting patiently near the wrought iron gate accompanied him back to the palace where he found Symon hard at work in his study, poring over Gregor's letter of disinheritance and various law books. Even with Gregor and Revel's letters, the process of elevating Symon from prince to king was proving to be as daunting a task as the former captain previously suspected. Elsa had even officiated a letter detailing the attack on her life and the threat to her kingdom made by Adrek and Fritz, but the council had been reluctant to acknowledge that their previous king had been capable of an attempted assassination without proper cause or provocation. They had deliberated for days with no sign of reaching a decision, forcing Symon to dig into near ancient laws of inheritance for the leverage he needed to get the ball rolling. Eventually he'd found an irrefutable passage in an ancient tome that forced the council to accept Symon's crowning. The ceremony had been rushed but official, Asham accepting their new ruler with cautious reluctance.

"They'll come around," Symon had reassured Revel after the ceremony as the two lounged in a small parlor off the main floor of the castle late one evening. They'd spent the day at the docks surveying vessels for Revel's return to Arendelle, the former captain almost vibrating with the need to return to his love and home. Being back in Asham was nostalgic, yes, and he was reacquainting himself with many treasured aspects of his homeland, but Revel burned to walk the familiar streets of the kingdom that had been his home for most of his life. But the harbor master had declared he had no open ships heading towards Norway, pleading his case that with the trade season in full swing his fleet was already booked for travel. The news had been disheartening and had dampened Revel's mood considerably despite his brother's attempt at cheering him. Despite having dined on an exquisite dinner surprisingly cooked entirely by his brother, Symon had inherited his father's love for cooking, Revel couldn't shake his gray mood and the topic of conversation had regrettably shifted from light to somber over the course of the evening.

"They're still reeling after the shock of Adrek's death and what he did in Arendelle. Apparently, he's not the first royal to try and take the life of the queen, which is news to me."

"Some asshole prince from the Southern Isles got it in his head that he could be king by marrying Princess Anna then killing Queen Elsa to gain the throne," Revel explained, leaning back on the plush couch with a sigh.

"Well, nothing good ever came from the Southern Isles, anyway. Father never did trust them…what with thirteen male heirs it's a wonder the old king was able to die peacefully in his sleep," Symon sniffed, graciously accepting a glass of wine from his fiancée, Princess Maria McDeclan of Welcher. Apparently, Revel discovered, Adrek had seen fit to allow Symon to court as he saw fit, and his little brother had found love in a princess born to a small earldom in Ireland. She'd arrived after his first month back in Asham upon receiving word of Adrek's death and had deigned to stay for as long as Symon deemed necessary…which judging by his joy at seeing her meant Maria would probably not return to her homeland for quite some time.

"I heard there were two other attempts on the Arendelle queen's life a year ago," Maria said settling in next to Symon with a cozy familiarity. She was a beautiful woman though she lacked the customary red hair of her people, something that Revel found out had caused contention within her small family. Still, her dark, thick locks only seemed to enhance her fair skin, blue eyes, and full red lips.

"Weselton sent two assassins which Elsa dispatched," Revel answered quietly, feeling the weight of her absence like a physical ache, rubbing his hand absentmindedly over the brand on his chest. He'd been gone for four months and during his time away the mark hadn't cooled in the slightest, a constant reminder that his love was still whole and healthy but hundreds of miles away.

"Well, the Norwegians are known for their ferocity, and with a ruler capable of ice magic…it's a wonder someone was able to get that close."

"Fritz got that close," the former captain whispered, swallowing hard at the memory of Elsa's broken body in his arms. "And Adrek."

Needless to say, conversation ground to a halt for a while until Maria gave Symon an expectant look which the former captain somehow missed. Symon cleared his throat, catching Revel's drifting attention. "So, brother of mine, I wish you luck in your venture, but mostly I wish you luck dealing with the drama you are about to step into."

"I…what?" he stammered, canting his head in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"The drama….surely you must know?" There was a playful note to Symon's voice, but Revel still wasn't able to understand what he was talking about and frowned deeply. "Oh dear, he doesn't know," Symon said with a sigh turning to Maria. She responded with a mournful shake of her head, the picture of pitiful disappointment.

"No he doesn't…poor dear."

Instantly wary, the former captain began to slowly rise from his seat. "What are you two talking about?"

"Well, apparently there's this important wedding you're supposed to be planning for but you're stuck here because all of Asham's ships are en route to other places." Symon spread his hands helplessly. "A shame really. I guess whoever's doing the planning has already started without you."

Revel searched his mind trying to decipher what his brother was talking about and only seemed to grasp what was going on once Symon pulled an ornate envelope from his breast pocket and held it up for him to see. The crocus of Arendelle, with the queen's snowflake superimposed behind it, told him exactly what Symon was holding and his heart leapt into his throat, a mixture of exhilaration and guilt making a nest in his stomach.

"Where did you get that?" he inquired, springing to his feet.

"A messenger, obviously. Seems your bride-to-be has become restless awaiting your return…that or she's marrying someone else. Do you happen to know a man by the name of," Symon glanced at the letter and squinted, "Sigmund? Yes, it seems she's going to wed Sigmund in your place, but the royal invitation is vague."

"Liar, let me see!"

"Come now, Revel, there's no need for name calling," Symon continued to tease as if Revel had not spoken, an impish smile crossing his face as he jumped to his feet to evade his older brother's attempts at snatching the letter from him. "Though, one must wonder why this wedding is happening so abruptly. Certainly the queen would want to take her time unless _time_ was the issue…"

Revel stopped attempting to grapple the invitation from his brother and stared at him with open-mouthed shock. "You can't possibly think…"

"What? I just assumed your honor was better than that," the new king said with a dramatic sigh, rolling his head around to look back at Maria. "What do you think, love?"

"Oh no. I'm staying out of this one."

"Symon, I swear if you weren't my kin I'd challenge you to a duel so we could determine just how _intact_ my honor really is," Revel grunted, managing to snatch the invitation out of his brother's hands and jumped away. Sure enough, it was exactly what Symon had said it was…an invitation to a wedding…_his wedding_.

_I'm getting married,_ he grinned inwardly, bubbly giddiness overtaking the queasy unease and spreading throughout his body. Apparently, Elsa was already a few steps ahead of him, marking the date of the ceremony for March of the following year, giving them less than a year to plan. It was an audacious goal and one that made Revel wonder if they'd make the date in time what with him still stuck in Asham for an undetermined period of time.

_How does she know I'll be back by then…_

Revel glanced over at Symon and suddenly understood what was going on by the smug grin his brother was wearing. "You've known about this letter for a while now, haven't you?"

"In truth, I received it a week ago, but I wanted to make certain everything here was as it should be. I've arranged for our fastest ship to take you home, brother. You leave on the morrow for Arendelle and your waiting bride. As for your challenge to duel…well….you'd just embarrass yourself," Symon laughed good-naturedly, batting the notion away as if it were a pesky fly. "Plus what kind of brother would I be if I hacked off your arm before your wedding? How would you ever show affection towards your beloved again? Stroke her with your stump?" He pantomimed a lost limb by jutting out his elbow and attempting to poke Maria with it. "Hush now my darling, I will stroke your fears away with my stump. All will be alright. Here, hang my wedding ring around my neck for I have no hand with which to wear it on account that…I have a stump."

Maria snorted with laughter and pushed him away.

Symon went to his knees, defeated, and raised his arm and "stump" into the air, crying, "Scorned by the woman I love because of this cursed stump! I am but half a man in the eyes of the world! Why, oh god, why did I ever duel my brother in the first place?! Why cursed stump…_why_?!"

"Alright, alright you've made your point," Revel couldn't help but laugh, leaning down to help his brother up. "With those acting skills I'm not sure why you even bothered remaining a prince."

"Why thank you," Symon bowed dramatically. "I had a lot of time to figure out how to entertain myself over the years. I should show you my rendition of Shakespeare's _The Tempest._"

Revel was tempted to see this rendition, his spirits sufficiently lifted, but saw Maria hiding her face behind her hands which gave him pause. "Apparently, Princess Maria is one of your biggest fans," he said, laughing when she glared at him through her fingers.

"Oh I'm not _that_ bad," Symon huffed.

"My love, you were gifted with a silver tongue but that doesn't mean you were gifted with the talent for acting." Turning to Revel she added, "When we first met he was in the middle of a monologue at the gardens. I thought he was a raving lunatic the way he thrashed about fighting invisible soldiers with a willow switch."

"Beowulf needs to be acted out with passion! I just got caught up in the moment," Symon protested, screwing up his face.

"So caught up you whacked me in the neck with your 'sword'," Maria lightly countered, making air quotation with her fingers.

Symon's face suddenly turned a brilliant red and he turned away, arms across his chest like a petulant child, sticking his tongue out at Maria who returned the childish gesture with a fair amount of sass. Revel couldn't help but laugh which got the other two laughing. Eventually, Maria excused herself, claiming she was in need of sleep but the look she gave Symon suggested she was in need of something a little more physical. Revel waved his brother off and returned to his own quarters but was unable to find sleep. He was leaving for Arendelle in the morning and the bubbling joy in his chest only seemed to grow with each passing second until he feared he'd float off his bed and lose himself in the sky.

As promised, before dawn Symon's manservant came and woke Revel up, who was surprised to find his belongings already packed and loaded on the ship. It had originally fit in one bag but eventually multiplied into three sturdy suitcases thanks to the royal tailor and his brother. He and his brother ate a quick meal before departing for the docks. The ship Symon had commandeered was a small, two-masted vessel capable of traversing the sea at a breathtaking speed.

"The _Sea Falcon_ will get you back home quickly," the king said clapping Revel on the shoulder.

"I can't thank you enough," he replied pulling his little brother into a hug. They embraced for a moment before pulling away, both men smiling like fools.

"It's been good seeing you again, Revel, but do remember that the tides work both ways. I expect you to visit as soon as possible."

"Indeed, but I expect to see you at my wedding."

"Oh, you will. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Take care, Symon," Revel said, suddenly serious. Despite having missed watching his little brother grow up, the love he had for Symon hadn't abated any in his fifteen year absence from Asham. He would have been lying had he said that saying good-bye didn't hurt, but it wasn't forever.

"And you do the same, Revel. Don't do anything rash now," he added with a wink.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Revel chuckled and turned to Princess Maria. "My lady, it has been a pleasure getting to know you."

"Likewise. Symon and I will see you in March," Maria smiled as Revel leaned down and brushed her knuckles with his lips.

Symon shooed his brother towards the gangplank as the captain of the _Sea Falcon_ made last calls, and Revel had never been so happy to board a ship, his eagerness to see Elsa again bordering on panicked need. He waved to his brother from the railing as the ship pushed away from the docks and her sails were unfurled, catching the strong sea breeze and lurching out of port. Moving from the port railing to the front of the ship, Revel climbed onto the bow-spirit and clung to the rigging of the staysail, watching the horizon grow ever wider as the _Sea Falcon_ made her way into open water. Heart pounding, the former captain slid his hand under the collar of his shirt and touched the snowflake brand over his heart.

_If you can feel this, know that I'm coming home._

Two weeks later the _Sea Falcon _sailed into Arendelle's fjord just before noon on the third Monday in September. Standing at the starboard railing, Revel watched the kingdom come into clearer focus, the surrounding countryside alive with vibrant colors as if each tree were a paintbrush having been dipped in rich fall colors and left to dry in the golden sunlight. It took an hour for the ship to dock, but Revel didn't have the patience to wait for the gangplank to be lowered or his bags to be unloaded. After a quick word with the captain, he swung over the railing and landed smartly on the docks, but the moment his feet were on solid ground he felt a tingling energy race up his legs and crackle over his brand. It was enough of a shock to pull him to an abrupt stop. Hand pressed against his chest, Revel felt the mark pulse like a frantic bird beating its wings against its cage, the sudden urge to run for the castle overtaking him so completely he'd broken into a dead run before he realized he'd moved.

Revel ran full tilt towards the castle, catching a few curious gazes as he wove around clusters of fishermen, dockworkers, and townsfolk, the brand on his chest continuing to pulse, driving him harder. Through the town proper he raced, the spires of the castle growing larger as he neared, until he was within sight of the bridge connecting the town to the palace and pulled up short once again. His chest was on fire, his heart pounding away behind his ribcage like a battering ram. For a moment he thought he was seeing things, four months had starved the former captain for any glimpses of his beloved and he'd started seeing her like a phantom moving out of the corner of his eye, but not this day. This day, when the throngs of townsfolk thinned, he saw Elsa standing at the mouth of the bridge, her smile so large and her relief so palpable it was a wonder her body was able to contain it. The pulsing of his brand stilled at the same time Elsa's did, both of them linked to one another through a bond of magic that shouldn't but did exist.

Revel didn't realize he was moving again until he was almost upon her; didn't realize her name was on his lips until their bodies tangled together, his arms encircling her and pulling her into a crushing embrace he never wanted to end. Elsa returned the embrace with a powerful one of her own, arms around his neck, fingers tangling in his wavy hair. He swung her in a tight circle, the joyous laugh spilling from her lips the sweetest music Revel had ever heard. He kissed her deeply and would have remained there had she not pulled back after reciprocating his kiss, her eyes so bright they could have been tiny lanterns.

"I'm here," he breathed, his forehead against her, hands entangled with her.

"I feel you," she whispered, fighting to keep herself from trembling. After a moment she stepped back and took his hand, heedless of who was watching or what they might think, and pulled him towards the castle with a wide smile. "Come. I have a lot to show you." And the queen hadn't been exaggerating. Revel left one storm back in Asham and traded it for another, albeit a more enjoyable one this time.

While he'd been away, Elsa had eventually succumbed to overwhelming temptation— despite her previous decision that "conditions" needed to be met first— and began planning the wedding while doing damage control and continuing to run her kingdom at the same dizzying time. Apparently, not everyone was pleased with the events of the Trade Summit, namely the Summit Ball and the drama that had taken place. The shocking news of the queen's betrothal to an apparent wayward prince, who until recently was still a murderer in his kingdom's eyes, was also troubling to some of Arendelle's trade partners. Still, Elsa handled herself like a seasoned monarch, placating those she could while curtly reminding other kingdoms, those who had attempted multiple courtings, that her choice in betrothal was hers alone to make so long as it fell within the proper legal and political circles. She was under no disillusion that her decision would fan the embers of anger, but that was fire the queen would fight at a later time, her attention already pulled in far too many directions. At first the prospects of having to plan the ceremony and following celebration on her own had been daunting, even with Anna and Kristoff's help, so it came as a great surprise when Kai had approached the queen one evening a few weeks after Revel's departure and presented her with a semi-completed wedding plan.

"I've been planning this day since your birth, Majesty," the chamberlain explained when Elsa had been at a loss for words and merely stared at the neat stack and scrolls of guest lists, food, flower, and decoration orders, possible color schemes, table placement, banquet arrangements, and a myriad other tiny details that had kept the queen up into the wee hours of the morning stressing over. When she's finally raised her eyes there were tears shinning in them, and she did the only thing she could which was to rise from her desk and wrap the portly manservant in a tight hug that in turn left him speechless.

"Thank you, Kai. For everything. I don't know where I'd be without you."

Kai gently returned her embrace, smiling warmly as he did. He may not have been in the habit of being as informal as Gerda often could be with the royal family, but that didn't mean he didn't care about them and think of them family. After all, he'd watched the sisters grow from birth into the beautiful young women they were today.

"You're welcome, Elsa. It's the least I can do," he replied very quietly so that only he and the queen could hear. He cleared his throat, stepping away to resume a professional distance as the queen wiped her tears away with the heel of her palm. "Now then, if you have a moment I'd like to go over a few small details that need your touch."

From then on it was slightly smoother sailing, though Elsa missed Revel deeply and found herself lost without him near. Sure there were things to occupy her time aside from the endless piles of paperwork and queenly duties. Jorg and Thea were growing like weeds and kept everyone busy, the castle ringing with the first pure sounds of childlike laughter as the little ones found their wobbly feet and began exploring in earnest, Anna and Kristoff always near. Dinners in the castle weren't quiet affairs any longer, not with two squealing infants at the table who were keen on making as much of a mess as possible, though Jorg seemed more fond of messes than his sister Thea. The twins had already made their first trip to see their troll grandparents, Bulda gushing over them while Pabbie watched with kind, warm eyes as the little ones rolled around and explored their world with limitless curiosity. Elsa had even managed to make the trip, feeling the need to show her gratitude towards Pabbie and Bulda for what they'd done to help her in her time of need despite their insisting she needn't trouble herself. However, both trolls were more than ecstatic to see that the queen had made a full recovery with limited physical evidence of her ordeal. Though mildly self-conscious about the new scars, the one on her back the most noticeable, Elsa was gradually coming to accept the changes made to her body, viewing them as a reminder of what she'd almost lost and what she'd also gained in the same flip of the coin.

Still, despite the welcome distractions, Elsa found time to miss her beloved and the ache for his return only seemed to grow as one month turned into four. But when she thought she could stand the distance no longer the brand on her shoulder flared one September morning, driving her to run as fast as she could to the docks. But Revel had already left his ship and was waiting for her in front of the bridge, green eyes so bright and alive with need and love she felt her knees grow week. Seeing him again was like a diver coming up for air. Elsa could finally inhale again and the sensation was overwhelmingly joyous.

* * *

><p>"Stop fidgeting, you look like you have ants in your trousers," Symon admonished from his place next to Revel.<p>

"I feel like I'm going to either explode or melt, one of the two," Revel answered back, fighting to keep from glancing over his shoulder. This was torture, plain and simple. It was tradition that the groom kept his back turned until the bride was beside him at the altar, but the prospect of waiting for that moment, knowing his love, who he'd not seen in almost three days, was right behind him, gnawed at him relentlessly. He knew she wasn't there yet, the doors hadn't opened but for a brief moment to allow the princess to enter and take her place across from him, infectious smile splitting her face, but that only served to flare Revel's nervous jitters until it quite literally felt as if someone was pressing a hot poker against the back of his neck.

"Save both of those things for your wedding night. I'm sure that exact thing will happen, though I assume only one will do the exploding and the other will melt," Symon joked lightly while adjusting his red and black jacket in order to make sure the double rows of polished gold buttons were in perfect alignment.

"Haha, very funny. I'll be sure to remind you of the same thing on your wedding day when you're sweating your balls off and feeling like you're going to vomit," Revel grunted, shifting from foot to foot. Bishop Arren, who was standing at rigid attention to his immediate left, gave him a pointedly dark look.

Symon, who'd seen the bishop's less than amused glare, covered his laugh with a cough as he glanced back at the raven-haired young woman sitting in the pew behind him. She blushed and smiled, whether or not she could actually hear their conversation remaining unknown. "Yes, well, if you do feel the urge to vomit try aiming it at your feet and not off to either side. Though I'd hate for you to ruin that dashing suit of yours, I'd also rather not ruin this one either. It being my first official suit as _king,_ anyway. And I'm sure your bride would feel the same."

Revel had to admit that his little brother did cut an excellent figure in his jacket was a deep, almost burgundy red with a stripe of black running from the stiff collar, down across his shoulder, and ending at black fitted cuffs held together with ornate falcon cufflinks. Two rows of polished gold buttons ran down the length of the jacket, echoing a faint military style often found in Prussia. Symon's medals of state were draped over his right shoulder and glinted in the ample sunlight like captured stars. The matching trousers were the same dark red with a black stripe leading from his waist to the ornate hem. Cinched tightly around his waist was a chocolate-brown leather belt complete with an ornate gold buckle supporting an equally ornate gold-hilted saber that swung comfortably at his hip.

By comparison, Revel wore perhaps the best fitted suit of his life yet it still felt like he was being suffocated by fabric. The white, long-sleeved doublet fit like a glove over his broad shoulders and narrow waist, trimmed in intricate vines of alternating silver and blue embroidery that crept up his torso and tangled into an impossibly complex Mammen flower-knot across his chest. Ingrid, the royal seamstress who'd single-handedly sewn his and Elsa's wedding attire, had insisted on Viking-style knotwork for the grooms outfit as a nod to Arendelle's past. Revel had been beyond his depth and agreed to whatever she had in mind, marveling at how she worked the needle and thread like some storybook sorceress. Polished silver, clasp buttons unrolled down the center of his chest starting at the shallow V of the doublets stiff, high collar and ending just past his navel. Unlike his brother, he wore no ornate belt, instead simply a plain brown band of leather hidden under his doublet that held his fitted, cool gray trousers in place. Polished, knee-high black boots completed his outfit, the leather buffed to a mirror-like sheen.

"I'll do my best to perfect my aim."

"I'm grateful. Just remember to smile really, really widely. It helps keep you from gagging when your nerves get the best of you."

_Nerves…that's an understatement_.

"We wouldn't want you to—"

Symon stopped and turned slightly at the sound of the double doors creaking open, his jaw dropping in amazement. The congregation felt the gentle wave of cold wash over them as tendrils of ice sped across the walls, ice flowers bursting into bloom between every window and cumulating into an ornate arch above Revel and Bishop Arren. The former captain heard the audible gasps of wonder and amazement as the congregation witnessed the queen's ice magic, and his smile grew. Elsa had been working to perfect that little trick for weeks. Suddenly Revel felt the brand on his chest flare and begin to pulse in a fast tattoo almost like a heartbeat. The musicians, who had been playing quietly in the background as the guests filed in and took their seats, stopped and readied themselves, fingers hovering over the strings of their various instruments with a tight kind of anticipation that was almost physically felt by all in attendance. Revel watched them staring at something over his shoulder and fought to keep from moving, clenching his jaw and fighting the shakes setting into his hands as he struggled against the overwhelming urge to simply turn. A second later, a lone violin played a long, pure note which was quickly followed by three more, then five, then the rest of the orchestra seated behind bishop Arren in the cathedral began playing a soft melody that grew into a complex tangle of interwoven notes as the song progressed. Due to the number of guests in attendance, the wedding had been moved to the cathedral within the town, and at the same time all eight hundred people stood in unison as the queen began to make her way slowly down the aisle. Unable to hold his position any longer, Revel threw tradition to the wind and turned, feeling his jaw physically hit the floor at about the same moment his heart stopped. He didn't even hear Bishop Arren's hiss of reproach, his senses attuned to only one thing in the room.

Elsa was beyond the point of beautiful— she was radiant— and her beauty struck the former captain like a well place blow to the chest, driving the breath from his lungs. He'd not seen her all morning as she prepared for this moment, and the care and preparation provided by her sister and the team of servants under Gerda's command was plainly evident. They had done a breath taking job. Elsa had chosen an exceptionally pale blue dress, so pale in fact that it almost looked white, in lieu of the more common white or cream colored dresses often worn by many European brides. The bodice sat just barely off her porcelain shoulders and was bound snugly in the back, further enhancing her hourglass figure. A thin gossamer underdress covered her open chest up to her collar bone, disguising the faint brand on her shoulder while adding a shimmering texture to the gown. The skirt swirling around her feet was a massive piece of engineering, three or four layers of heavy, pale blue silk stacked one atop the other and pleated in place.

As she neared, Revel's wide eyes took in more staggering elements of detail starting with the snowflake patterns woven into the fabric of her dress, a latticework of hand-cut crystals swirled up from the bottom hem, catching the light as she walked towards him and winking like caged fire, and ending with her exceptionally long veil. She had chosen not to wear it over her face, instead attaching it to the delicate woven ice and gold crown resting demurely atop her hair. It had been the queen's decision to remake the crown after subsequently gifting her last tiara to Marshmallow, and the new modified crown fit her perfectly. All-in-all, the queen had chosen her gown well and Ingrid had sewn it with such love and devotion it wasn't impossible to believe that spells of beauty and radiance weren't woven into the fabric.

Elsa saw him turn and couldn't help but smile, cheeks reddening under her carefully applied makeup as she took in her beloved's outfit and the stunned look on his handsome face. Even Kristoff managed a lopsided grin as he slowly led his sister-in-law up the aisle towards the altar. Once she was in place beside Revel, the mountain man turned and bowed to the queen, brushing the knuckles of her right hand with his lips before taking his seat next to Anna. From behind the queen a small figure emerged, the long train of her dress clutched in the girls mismatched hands. Elsa smiled warmly at little Sonja, her newest lady in waiting, as she arranged the back of her dress like they'd practiced. The bright sunlight streaming in through the high arch windows flashed and winked against the girl's pristine white dress and will-ice hand, and Elsa felt a sense of bubbling pride fill her as she watched her perform acts that would have previously been impossible after the accident at the wharf had taken her left hand. Nearly a year of trial and error later, and with many visits from Saja in dream form explaining the inner workings of her magic, Elsa had figured out how to bond her ice with human flesh without causing damage, hardening it with her will while allowing the child to use it like a normal appendage. Once finished, Sonja curtsied and took her leave, scuttling back to where the other ladies in waiting sat behind the royal family.

Bishop Arren nodded affectionately at the queen before beginning, opening the ceremony with the customary "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today," which went unheard by both Elsa and Revel as they stared at one another, neither able to keep the infectious grin from their faces. Only when Arren called for the rings did they break eye contact as a familiar jovial laugh drifted throughout the chambers.

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Olaf gushed as he trotted forward, holding a delicate pillow with two small rings resting on top. "Elsa, you look so beautiful!"

"Thank you, Olaf," Elsa grinned.

"You're welcome! And you look beautiful too Revel! Well, maybe not beautiful…you're a guy after all. So maybe handsome? Yeah, handsome!"

Revel smiled down at the little snowman as he took Elsa's ring in his shaking hands, the queen doing the same, and waited for Arren to begin the binding ceremony. The former captain hadn't known about the loss of the snowman and snow golem during the events in the ice castle, but had shared in Elsa's dismay over not knowing how to bring them back. Like with Sonja's hand it had taken her quite some time to puzzle out how she'd created the sentient beings and it was just recently they'd been returned to life. Marshmallow was in his place atop North Mountain, guarding the spot where Elsa intended to rebuild her ice castle, while Olaf picked up where he'd seemingly left off some months ago, helping the queen where he could but mostly remaining with the twins.

Upon delivering his parcel, Olaf turned and headed over to where Anna and Kristoff sat but stopped when he saw Sonja, his little face lighting up. "Hi, Sonja! Wow, you look really beautiful too!"

The young girl's face turned a brilliant scarlet as she hid behind her mismatched hands with a muffled squeak. Out of all the staff and residents in the castle, Olaf seemed to be the only one who didn't initially notice the burn scars that crept up the left side of Sonja's neck and climbed onto her face and back of the head. Her dress covered the rest, but Olaf had seen none of it, instantly creating a bond with the little girl her first week in the castle. A faint ripple of chuckles drifted throughout the room as the little snowman promptly waddled over to Sonja and took a seat beside her, patting her leg while swinging his feet with a giddy kind of excitement as he anxiously waited for the rest of the ceremony to continue.

Arren instructed the two to exchange rings, Elsa barely holding back a giddy laugh as the white-gold circle, studded with amethyst and emeralds while engraved with runes on the inside of the band, was slid onto her finger. Revel's cheeks felt like they were going to cramp from all the smiling he was doing as his bride in turn slid his ring onto his left hand, a simple white-gold band similar to Elsa's only his was devoid of precious stones and instead engraved entirely in intricate runes.

"The ring is a symbol for eternity and purity," Bishop Arren was saying, reading for a massive tome held perfectly still in his aged hands. "With having no beginning or end, it symbolizes the unbroken love and devotion that must be shared between husband and wife. In exchanging rings you are promising to one another that your union is eternal, and that the love shared will live on well past the time when the soul departs the body."

"In this we swear," Elsa and Revel said in unison.

Arren nodded and closed the tome, handing it off to a waiting white-robed priest before striding forward and instructing the two lovers to raise their hands and intertwine them. Revel stepped closer to his bride and pressed the palm of his left hand against her right so that the back of his hand was facing her and hers was facing him. From his robe Arren withdrew two long silk ribbons— one blue and the other white— and laid them over their forearms, speaking while he did.

"But a ring is merely an outward symbol of the sacred promises you have made." Taking the white ribbon, Arren began to wrap Elsa and Revel's hands starting at their interlaced fingers and working down. "Ecclesiastes tells us 'Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken,' so I bind you with ribbons signifying heart and soul while your intertwined hands symbolized a bonding of flesh." The second ribbon was added atop the first, tied snugly in place with a few deft knots. "Now you are bound one to the other: heart, soul, and body, in the eyes of Almighty God. It is a bond not easily broken, so take the time to reflect that these are the hands that will hold you during the turmoil of life. These are the hands that will tenderly wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of both sorrow and joy. These are the hands that will hold your children. These are the hands bound to protect one another, to be both sword and shield. These are the hands that will give you strength, and lastly, these are the hands that, even when withered with age, will still be reaching for yours in this life and in the paradise beyond."

"In this we swear, forever and eternity, our bond is made in the eyes of the most High, Amen," they said again, though there was a sparkling of tears in both sets of eyes as bride and groom gazed at one another.

"Then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride."

It was impossible to tell who moved first, but both Elsa and Revel practically fell into one another, bound hands pressed against their chests as their lips connected for the first time as man and wife. The room erupted with cheers and applause that went unheard by the two as they reveled in the warmth of their embrace and the giddy happiness bubbling inside them.

"I'm here," Revel whispered, pulling back just enough so that his lips could form the words.

"I feel you," Elsa replied, her eyes so bright they could have outmatched the sky as they roved over his face. Eventually they parted and turned towards the congregation, bound hands at their sides.

Above the rancorous thunder of applause and cheers, Arren declared, "I present to you, Queen Elsa and King Consort Revel of Arendelle!"

Elsa caught a glimpse of her teary-eyed sister grinning like a fool in the front pew next to her husband and an equally joyful, short-haired brunette as she and Revel descended from the podium and waved to her, Anna and Rapunzel returned the gesture with enthusiastic ones of their own. Kristoff and Eugene were more subdued, though their smiles were as large as they could possibly be. It had been a treat for the royal family of Arendelle to see their cousin again, the princess of Corona and her husband Eugene having arrived only a day ago for the wedding.

The newlyweds quickly made their way down the aisle, the congregation rising and clapping as they did, and burst out of the cathedral doors to the roar of the crowd gathered beyond the stone steps. The townspeople cheered for their queen and new king consort, hundreds of people packed into the small square, all waving banners and ribbons in Arendelle's colors. A garrison of guards awaited them, statuesque men standing at attention on every other step. They came to life with a barked command from Sigmund, drawing their swords and raising them in salute as Elsa and Revel moved towards the ornate, open-top carriage waiting for them. From somewhere above, a torrent of delicate white rose petals fluttered down around them like fat snowflakes, captured on the back of the wind and swirled around the two like a dervish. Elsa laughed and gripped Revel's hand tighter, the joy she felt hardly containable and the lightness of her body so profound she feared she'd drift away if he didn't weigh her down. At the end of the steps stood Sigmund, the big guard, recently elevated to the rank of captain of the Queen's Guard, saluting as he opened the door for them.

"Majesties," he bowed, grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Sigmund," Revel replied, clapping the big guard on the shoulder. "You look good in my uniform."

"Just needed someone who wasn't so skinny to fill it out is all," the big guard winked. Turn to the queen he said, "You are a vision of loveliness, Queen Elsa. I'm sorry you had to settle for someone who pales in comparison to your beauty."

"If I were looking to marry a man based solely off his physical prowess and physique, I would have wed you, captain. As it is, I find my choice in husband quite agreeable. Plus, who wants to wed a man who you have to compete with when it comes to looks?" she quipped with a devilish grin.

"Touché, Majesty," Sigmund chuckled as he helped her into the carriage, Revel following close behind.

The ride back to the castle was a short one, Elsa and Revel waving to gathering townsfolk as they wove through town until they passed beneath the castle gates and headed straight for the royal chambers, laughing and giggling like fools as they went. Halfway down the hall, Revel scooped his bride into his arms— squeezing a few startled squeals from the queen— and carried her the rest of the way, nudging the door open with his foot.

"You know the tradition of carrying me over the threshold is meant for our _wedding night_," Elsa observed, playfully pushing Revel away when he set her down.

"I can't just want to carry you around?" he asked, feigning a hurt expression. "But I'm supposed to be the one who sweeps you off your feet!"

Elsa approached her husband with a bright gleam in her cerulean eyes, a coy half-smile pulling at her lips. "You can do that tonight at the reception, but if you wanted me close all you had to do was ask," she said, pressing herself against him, their left hands still bound together.

"Oh believe me, I want you as close as I can get you," Revel replied, looping his only free arm around her waist and kissing her deeply.

"Too bad we're bound like this," she sighed dramatically, raising their bound hands to emphasize the problem.

"I kind of like you bound," he grinned mischievously. "Makes it easier to guide you around."

"Oh really?" Elsa shot back with a laugh. "Well, it certainly would be easier for me to move without this dress on. Would you care to help me unlace it?"

"I am ever your servant, my queen." One of the small talents Revel had kept to himself was his ability to untie knots one-handed. He put this skill to work, quickly unlacing the back of Elsa's wedding dress and letting it slide from her body with a faint rustle of fabric. She carefully stepped out of the massive mound of silk and lace, standing confidently before her husband with a hand on her hip.

"See? Much bet—"

He had her pinned against the wall before she could breathe, using his height to pull and pin her left hand above her head while his right slid down her silk-covered hip and slipped under the fabric of her slip. Elsa, recovering from the shock of his forceful positioning, bit her lip as his fingers trailed teasingly along the inside of her thigh and jerked with a ragged gasp as those same fingers sought and found the sensitive mound just above her opening and began circling it.

"Forgive me, Majesty, were you about to say something?" he husked into her ear before lightly biting into the soft flesh of her neck. He could feel her trying to form words, the muscles in her throat and jaw working to create the syllables.

"I—m-merely s-said—"

He cut her off before she could string enough words together, sliding his fingers past her opening and into the warm wetness within. Elsa's eyes slid shut and she arched against him, body trembling as her beloved worked inside her with deft strokes that turned her legs to jelly while his lips trailed along her shoulder leaving fire in their wake. His name was on her lips like a fervent, breathy prayer to some nameless god of passion, each utterance both a summons and command. Revel went to his knees, his tongue replicating the motion of his fingers around her clit while his other hand continued to work within her. Elsa sought and found his head, tangling her fingers in his wavy hair while struggling to remain standing. Her beloved watched her hungrily as the flush of orgasm eventually turned her porcelain skin red and ripped even her monosyllabic panting away, replacing it with barely muffled cries from behind the hand clapped over her mouth. He felt her tighten vice-like around his fingers and smiled with satisfaction as she sagged against the wall. Sliding his fingers free with deliberate slowness, Revel scooped his bride into his arms and carried her to the bed where he planned to finish their "game" when the door to the royal chamber suddenly burst open, startling them both.

Ingrid, the royal seamstress, managed to get half way into the room before noticing the two, but rather than scuttling out of the room with a string of apologies trailing behind her, she merely grunted with satisfaction. "Glad the two of you are in the same place. Saves me a trip."

"Ingrid…why…?"

"Come, come you two will have plenty of time for love-making tonight." Pointing at Revel she said, "You, I've got your suit right here. Go change in the corner while I fit your wife in her gown." When the two simply stared at her, still locked in shock, she sighed and threw up her hands. "Really, there is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a natural act we all participate in, so stop staring at me like frightened rabbits. It's nothing I haven't seen before, I can assure you."

For a moment the two lovers just stared at one another, too stunned for words. Eventually, Elsa sighed gustily and nodded for Revel to do as the little woman said and couldn't help but catch a flash of irritation arc across his face.

"She needs to learn to knock," Revel muttered. He carefully undid the binding around their hands and climbed off his wife while awkwardly trying to walk with the bulge in his pants. If the seamstress saw it she paid it no mind, handing Revel his tailored suit with a sweet, almost grandmotherly smile.

"I did knock, dearie. Your ears were just attuned to other sounds," the seamstress said with the same broad smile across her face. Revel felt his cheeks flush and quickly took the dark suit from her, moving off next to Elsa's vanity to change. He heard his bride laughing and made a face at her over his shoulder.

"Ingrid," Elsa began as she slid off the bed, trying to slip her queenly mask in place but finding it hard to be cross with the old woman. "I appreciate your punctuality, but you…"

The queen trailed off as the seamstress laid Elsa's reception dress on the bed for her to inspect like she had so many times in the past…only this was different. It was an elegant evening gown made of the most delicate looking soft-blue silk she had ever seen. As had become common in most of Elsa's dresses after the Summit, the bodice was the same material as the dress, layered in a stair-step pattern to give it depth, and laced up the back, smoothing the queen's torso without squeezing her like a normal bodice did when cinched. Ingrid had shaped it to hug Elsa's ample bosom much like her Snow Queen dress did, adding slender straps to help support the gown while the wearer was in movement. The skirt was shorter in the front than it was in the back, wrapping around her waist like an uneven towel, the edges hemmed in a heavy fabric that weighted the skirt down while creating the illusion of flowing water as it swung around Elsa's legs. Truly, this was a dress designed to catch the eye while allowing for ample movement while dancing. Ingrid had even gone so far as to sew tiny rhinestones along the waist and within the folds of the bodice causing the gown to twinkle and spark as it was turned in the light.

"Ingrid this…how did you make this is such a short amount of time?" Elsa breathed, touching the soft fabric with a cautious gentleness as if it would disintegrate if handled too roughly.

"I'm just that good," the old woman beamed, clearly pleased with the queen's reaction.

"You're a sorceress with fabric. I can't believe the level of detail," Elsa laughed, lifting it into the light.

"It helps when you've had years of woodcarving under your belt. Makes you pay attention to the details!"

Elsa paused and looked down at the elderly woman, head canted curiously. "You never told me you were a woodcarver."

"It was years ago," the seamstress said with a wave of the hand. "When I used to live in Scotland I did a fair amount of carving for a living until a princess in a nearby kingdom bought up all my work."

"You didn't start carving more pieces after you sold them all?"

"Why should I have? I was handsomely paid and needed a change of scenery, so I came here and started sewing. Wasn't but a couple of years later that my work caught the eye of young Prince Agdar who commissioned me to make your mother's wedding dress. So here I am," she said with another broad smile, spreading her hands.

"You are full of surprises, Ingrid," Elsa laughed still eyeing the gown.

"It'll look better _on_ you, Majesty," the seamstress prompted gently.

Ducking behind her changing screen, Elsa slid the dress on and marveled how it hugged every inch of her like a second skin. Ingrid deftly tied the back with purple ribbon, adjusting the bow until it hung just right before stepping aside and allowing the queen to see herself in the large oval mirror. Elsa felt her mouth fall open when she caught sight of her reflection, but her initial shock was nothing compared to Revel's reaction. When she stepped out from behind the changing screen he went still, his hands going slack at his side at the same moment his jaw hit the floor.

"I take it from your husband's reaction the gown is a success," Ingrid chuckled.

"Elsa you…wow." Up until now he didn't think she could ever look as beautiful as she had when in her wedding dress, but he'd been sorely mistaken. His wife was a goddess come to earth and he could only bring himself to stare, enraptured by her unearthly beauty.

"Do you like it?" she asked with a sheepish smile, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, the confident queen suddenly replaced by a twenty six year old woman preparing for her wedding reception.

"I…y-yeah—yes! I love it!"

"You look handsome," she said, admiring the tailoring on Revel's navy blue and purple suit. It was almost identical to the one he'd worn to the Summit ball so many months ago save for a few minor details. It had been at his insisting that all eyes should be on the queen for her big day, wanting the focus to be solely on her. Elsa, however, stubbornly countered that the attention was to be shared equally, so Revel was fitted for a reception suit that complemented his bride's dress.

"I'll leave you two so you can finish," Ingrid said, gathering her things and making for the door. Before she moved out of the room she glanced over her shoulder at the newlyweds and smiled. "It is good to see that everything worked out, Majesty. My congratulations to you on your betrothal. May the four winds bless your union."

The blessing made the queen pause, the unfamiliarity of it creasing her brow with slight confusion. She would have called after Ingrid but the old woman was gone, her aged body moving with surprising speed as she made her way down the spiral staircase. However strange the blessing, Elsa pushed it from her mind and finished getting ready, though Revel made the process last a little longer than necessary with his playful teasing. Eventually the two managed to pull themselves away from one another long enough to head down into the Great Hall where a freshly changed Anna and Kristoff were waiting with the twins, accompanied by Rapunzel and Eugene. There was an audible gasp as the king and queen descended the staircase, all eyes turning towards them.

"Wow, Elsa, you look amazing," Anna gasped, circling her sister in order to get a better look at her dress. "Did Ingrid make this?"

"She did, though how is a mystery."

"That's it. I'm convinced she's a sorceress of some kind." The princess smiled as Thea, currently enjoying being held by her cousin, turned and reached for her aunt, pudgy little hands opening and closing in the universal sign for 'I want something'.

"Oh, I see," Rapunzel laughed, planting a kiss on the little one's chubby cheek. "You wanna be held by Aunty Elsa because she's all sparkly and whatnot."

"Oh hush," Elsa chuckled, taking Thea and settling her on her hip. The little princess stared in mesmerized wonder at the rhinestones and added will-ice of the queen's dress, dexterous fingers picking at the ones that were small enough for her digits to fit around. "You look beautiful, little one," Elsa said, gently poking Thea's nose and drawing the eleven month olds attention towards her. Even at such a young age Thea had eyes like a hawk with an intelligence far beyond her years lingering behind her near amber eyes. She gazed up at her aunt before bursting into a fit of cackles as Elsa conjured a snowflake for her to chew on, which the little princess promptly popped into her mouth.

"Alright you, come back here so your aunt can get this party started," Anna said as she retrieved her daughter and settled her in the sling across her chest. Kristoff had Jorg in something similar, the little prince happily looking around, hand in his mouth.

"It's good to see you again, cousin," Elsa greeted, wrapping Rapunzel in a tight embrace which the brunette returned affectionately.

"I wish we could have come sooner for Jorg and Thea's baptism," she commented, giving Eugene a pointed look.

"Oh come on, how many times do I have to apologize for sinking that boat?" he exclaimed.

"It was a ship."

"It was Max who chased the thief on board. I just happened to knock over the wrong lamp!"

Rapunzel merely rolled her eyes and good-naturedly punched him in the arm. "I know, dear. I'm just teasing. Though the harbor master still needs compensation," she added sweetly, pecking him on the cheek. "Regardless of our previous mishaps, I'm glad we could make it for your wedding, Elsa."

"We are too," Revel replied, slipping his arm around his wife's waist and pulling her close. "Are you ready?" he whispered into her ear as they made for the Great Hall doors.

"Are you?" she countered with a grin, hand resting on the ornate handle.

"After you, my queen."

Looping her arm with Revel's, Elsa pushed open the doors and stepped past the threshold, punctuated with a few clear blasts from the trumpeters on either side of the stoop, announcing the royal party's arrival. The castle courtyard had been transformed into a large gathering area, the royal ballroom too small to accommodate so many people all at once. Colorful tents and awnings had been pitched along the gate wall and parallel the castle's front, creating a large square where the hundreds of people in attendance could meet and congregate. In lieu of a traditional banquet, Elsa had decided to set up tables for food to be distributed as her guests saw fit, ornate tables erected under the tents for convenience sake. As always, ample spirits and liquors were provided, though not a single guest had touched a glass or plate of food, waiting for the newlyweds to kick off the celebration.

Elsa did just that after a roar of applause and cheers greeted the royal family as they emerged. A few quick words later and the celebration began in earnest, the queen and her new king swept away in a tide of well-wishers and revelers. It wasn't until well into the evening that the dancing started. A few brave couples entered the dance floor as the consumption of food faded in lieu of more spirits being consumed, but it wasn't until Elsa and Revel had their first dance that their guests abandoned their hesitancy and joined in.

"May I have this dance?" Revel had smiled as he bowed low in front of his bride, the dozens of torches and lanterns hung about the area filling the courtyard with a soft yellow glow.

"Why, sir, I thought you'd never ask," Elsa replied grinning from ear-to-ear. She extended her hand which Revel gently took and led her past the large orchestra. As usual, the queen paused beside the maestro and whispered something into his ear, the man nodded gravely and turning to speak to his instrumentalists.

"Another surprise like our dance at the Yule Ball?"

"Of course, but this time something less competitive," Elsa said, taking her beloved's hand and leading him into the center of the dance floor. "You are familiar with the Toss the Feather dance, aren't you?"

A toothy grin replaced Revel's quiet curiosity. "I am indeed."

"It's a wonder you were able to remain under cover for so many years, what with your vast knowledge of dance and all," Elsa commented.

"Believe me, it was a challenge at social events not to blow my cover," Revel retorted, nudging her affectionately with his shoulder. "Especially when watching you dance."

"Well then, shall we begin?"

"Let's leave them breathless."

The small crowd gathered there immediately broke apart, giving the queen and king room, conversation grinding to a standstill. Elsa, ever the proper royal, nodded her thanks to her people and cleared her throat— a signal for the maestro to begin— and struck a pose similar to how many Highland dances began, right foot forward and hands raised as if preparing to clap. Revel mirrored her stance, albeit at a noticeable distance from his bride, the two locking eyes as they patiently waited for the orchestra to begin. As the crowd fell silent, all eyes on the royal couple, a long flute trilled a cluster of clear, fast notes quickly joined by other woodwinds and a set of violins. Elsa and Revel began their dance in unison, spinning around one another and clapping in time with the music, hopping a step and spinning again. The revelers quickly caught one, Toss the Feather being a common dance amongst the aristocracy but one easily followed by onlookers if they could match the rhythm.

The point of this particular dance, and the reason Elsa had chosen it, wasn't to outdo your dance partner or compete in a competition. It was a dance centered solely on enjoying a partners company and the company of others, beginning with a small distance that was to be decreased by each circuit the dancers made around one another, punctuated by the flute that had begun the song. It was a dance dedicated to celebration and new beginnings, a dance of love and joy and happiness. Jumps and twirls were common, a jovial rhythm coursing through the crowd as percussion instruments joined the strings and woodwinds. There were no rules aside from keeping the beat with your hands and feet while decreasing the distance between partners which Elsa and Revel did effortlessly, the queen's skits swirling and snapping around her as she gripped the hem, laughing as she spun and clapped alongside her husband. Closer and closer they gravitated towards one another like orbiting planets, the tempo gradually increasing to a near feverish pitch. Grasping hands, Revel spun his wife in tight circuit of three rotations, Elsa's shoes gliding atop a wafer thin coating of ice under her feet, decreasing her traction so that she spun all the faster. Her skirt and hair snapped like a flag as she came to an abrupt halt on her own, heels digging into her ice in order to control her movements. She laughed openly and clapped her hands in time with the beat, watching Revel do a series of tight spins around her, the distance between them nearly depleted. They dipped and spun, coming together only to slingshot off their own momentum and spin away. Those who could not or did not wish to dance added to the rhythm, clapping their hands and stomping their feet, the courtyard coming alive with an electric energy that soared into the night and made the stars above shine all the more.

Elsa caught a glimpse of Anna and Kristoff dancing with their little ones, both hunched near in half as they held onto the fingers of their children and helped them along, the infants laughing and cackling. She saw Rapunzel and Eugene engaged in an almost frantic tempo, their feet a blur and smiles so huge it was a wonder their faces didn't split. She saw others in the crowd, faces she knew well like Sigmund who danced with a duke's daughter or Symon who danced with his Irish fiancée. Even Olaf was stomping around the dance floor, Sonja in tow, her joy almost palpable. She saw all this and more and for the first time in a long time, Elsa felt true peace overwhelm her to the point that tears stung her eyes. But they were quickly whipped away as she turned her attention on the only person who mattered at the moment.

Throughout the course of her lifetime, in all facets and instances, Elsa never once believed she'd find a missing piece of herself in the strange man who used to be her guard captain. She never once gave into the idea that she'd find true and lasting love, but it seemed fate had other plans as it often did, for here she was, dancing on her wedding night with her best friend and lover, feeling all the world like things could never again have the power to strip this happiness from her. Oh, the queen knew there would be hard times, there always were and she knew her relationship wasn't going to be immune from that, but for now it was perfect and she could allow herself to laugh as freely as she dared. Elsa didn't realize she and Revel had stopped dancing, their bodies flush with one another, hearts beating against each other, both standing still like an island in a thrashing sea.

"I love you," Revel said with such naked tenderness and honesty it brought her tears back.

"And I love you," Elsa replied, for once not having to keep her voice from quivering because she meant it in every sense of the word and had never been so certain of something in her life aside from the love she had for her family.

They came together again in the middle of the dance floor, amongst the revelry and pageantry taking place in their honor, lips meeting without hesitation or fear. The exhilaration of the connection was like bottled lightning, goosebumps racing across both their bodies while their individual brands flared with matching heat. Revel held his bride close as she did the same with him, arctic power swirling around them as Elsa gave in to the pull of her magic and let it go where it please, which was up. Erupting from the queen like a Roman candle, a comet of ice magic burst in the sky directly over the lovers like a firework, Elsa's snowflake illuminating the courtyard and kingdom beyond for just a moment like a second sun. People stopped and stared, mouths agape at the spectacle that the newlyweds were blind to. Eventually they broke apart with a string of ecstatic giggles, hold one another close and basking in the moment. It was a moment that marked the end of one story and the beginning of another. The tale of Revel the guard captain was over, as was the story of the unwed, companionless queen of Arendelle. Together, hand in hand, the two would begin and write their own story starting with this tender moment shared amongst strangers as flakes of snow drifted down from a clear, star-dusted sky.

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><p><strong>AN:** I do have to confess, there were those on tumblr who guessed that 23 would contain a wedding. To put it simply, I lied and I'm damn proud I was able to throw most of you off the scent XD Rule one, the author lies. Remember that for the future! Anyway! There we are, the ending I promised. Was it satisfactory? Was it all you wanted? Good, because now I get to finish the epilogue. What? You thought we were done? Oh no, no no no, this, as Elsa put it, is only the beginning. So keep your eyes pealed for one more update. I promise you won't want to miss it! Again, review review review here on FFN and hit me up on tumblr. Love hearing from you all!


	24. Epilogue

**A/N: **So here we are guys, the final installment of FTFTIN. I can't begin to explain how hard it was to write this final piece knowing that it would be the end of an amazing adventure that couldn't have been made possible without awesome readers such as yourselves. You guys have made this a truly wonderful experience, and I hope this isn't the end. So before you start reading just let me say thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. I've learned so much while writing this fic. It's inspired me to further my writing skills and try new things with so much less fear dogging me down. So again, thank you, and I hope you enjoy the final chapter. Also, please read the author's note at the end. =)

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><p>It was well past midnight. The castle was silent save for the sporadic rattle of led-glass windows when a gust of wind buffeted them and the occasional high pitched trill when it found a gap to squeeze through. April squalls were common on the fjord as the seasons changed and winter reluctantly surrendered to spring. Though the storm was still far out at sea and had yet to reach the coast, Elsa could feel the shift in the atmosphere as the air became charged with energy, her scalp tingling and the brand on her shoulder itching faintly. She liked to think it was the oncoming storm that sent the tendrils of quivering energy racing through her body and not the growing dread she knew was actually coursing through her veins.<p>

_It's your choice, love. I'll stand by whatever decision you decide to make._

She could hear Revel's words circulate in her mind as she walked the familiar stretch of hallway in the residency wing, the plush carpet muffling her footfalls. With each step her unease grew and with it the nauseous roll of her stomach, the lengthy shadows growing deeper and more ominous as she neared her destination. Elsa had never been afraid of the dark, years of wandering the castle by moonlight eradicating that particular fear, but tonight was different. Tonight she could feel the darkness settle in around her like a living being, hundreds of unseen eyes watching her as she made her way towards the alcove and the choice the awaited her there. Had it not been for Revel lingering behind her at a respectful distance she would have turned around and returned to her room, saving this decision for another day.

_But I can't keep procrastinating. This needs to be done..._

The queen reached the statue without really noticing, her feet coming to a standstill as of by their own accord. In the darkness it looked like all the other ornate furnishings in the residency wing, cold white marble made all the more cold and lifeless by the faint glow of the wall sconce behind her, features lost to the gloom. But Elsa knew it was Saint Collette and swallowed hard around the lump in her throat, hands tightening around the herb bundle clutched to her chest.

_All I have to do is leave the bundle with her. That's what the legend says…leave it and…_

Her left hand slid down the front of her dress, fingers splayed over her abdomen searching for hints of life she logically knew wouldn't yet be there. She'd only just discovered the news three days ago, so the baby couldn't be any more than a handful of weeks along, a month and a half at most.

Her sister had been with her when Brynja was summoned to the queen's quarters earlier that week. Revel was with Sigmund that morning, helping the big guard catalog the winter storehouses and take stock of what was still needed. Elsa thought she'd been battling a persistent flu bug that had stolen her appetite and left her nauseous enough throughout the day to cancel most of her meetings. She'd also been more fatigued recently, her usual amount of sleep unable to satisfy her body's sudden need for rest. Though colds and flus weren't all that uncommon in the castle, Elsa rarely became ill, so the idea she had come down with a sickness was a curious matter.

Brynja had gone through her usual examination: checking the queen for fever and asking her a myriad of different questions in order to better determine what was ailing her. No one in the castle had been sick recently, and Elsa didn't recall coming into contact with any ill visitors to the palace or during her walks through town.

"Illnesses are strange like that, Majesty. They can ride the wind very easily." It wasn't until Elsa had mentioned the addition of tenderness in her chest and breasts and sudden sharpening of her sense of smell that Brynja jerked to a stop while rummaging around in her medicine bag and raised her head, eyes wide. Anna, who'd been half-listening from Elsa's writing desk, suddenly looked up with a gasp.

"Have you noticed spotting between your normal bleeds?" the Physician inquired, brow furrowed.

"You know I'm irregular," Elsa sighed, cheeks coloring a bit. She disliked speaking about personal matters that pertained to the strange way her body cycled itself. Unlike her sister, Elsa had never had regular monthly bleeds, her body sometimes skipping entire months at a time while Anna was like clockwork.

"Regardless, this would be something you'd recognize as strange."

"I don't know…maybe? What does that—"

"Pregnancy," Brynja interrupted, and the very word was like a stone falling into a tranquil pond. Elsa felt the room around her grow shockingly warm, dizziness threatening to pull her off the bed.

_Oh look at me, I'm swooning. How proper._

She maintained her white knuckle grip on one of the bed posts, ears buzzing. "What…what did you say?" she whispered.

"I believe you are with child, Queen Elsa," the Physician confirmed with a nod, fighting to keep the grin from spreading across her face. "What you've just described to me are all common symptoms of early pregnancy. In my professional opinion, since there are no outward signs yet, you are only a few weeks along."

"I…I…" Suddenly whatever she was about to say dried up on her tongue and she was left mute. Brynja continued to explain the process to the queen, detailing a list of symptoms and changes she'd soon start feeling. She mixed up a quick tonic that would take care of Elsa's nausea but ordered her to more rest in the evenings while refraining from doing any 'strenuous activities'. Though it wasn't common knowledge to the castle staff— really, only Anna, Kristoff, and Brynja knew— Elsa and Revel had continued their training sessions as a way to unwind while keeping them both in top form. The events atop North Mountain with Adrek and Fritz had only fueled the queen's desire to make certain she could continue to protect herself and her family should anything like that ever happen again…though God willing it never would.

"When did you stop taking the tea?" Anna asked once Brynja had taken her leave, sliding next to her shell-shocked sister and taking her hand.

"I really don't remember," Elsa admitted in a small voice after rediscovering her ability to speak again. Ever since last year's Trade Summit and the events that unfolded over that fateful weekend, the queen had been busy juggling a tight schedule made all the tighter when she'd begun planning her wedding some months later. She'd decided to forego a Trade Summit that following year in lieu of her wedding being only a month beforehand, instead focusing her attention on the six or seven new trade partners that had come about after making arrangements with Revel's brother, King Symon. Because of the drama of the previous year's Summit, and the crowning of a new king in Asham, Arendelle had become a much talked about topic amongst other kingdoms, temporarily swinging into the public eye. Elsa couldn't say she wasn't grateful for the influx of attention towards her small kingdom, but it did add on layers of pressure and stress for her to maintain a strong hold on goods trafficking while bartering new trade agreements along with maintaining others. So, needless to say, when she retired for the evening with her husband by her side, whether or not anything physical happened that night, the last thing on the queen's mind was making sure to take her dose of no-accidental-baby-tea.

"Are you going to tell him?

The strangeness of her sister's question snapped Elsa out of the chaotic tumble of her mind and brought her back to the present. "No," she deadpanned, giving Anna an amused look, "I thought I'd just keep it a secret until I went into labor."

"Okay…that came out wrong," the princess admitted with a slight wince that tapered off into a comforting smile when she saw fear cloud her sister's eyes. "You know, for once I can tell you, I know what you're feeling right now."

"How am I going to do this? How am I going to raise a child? I was scared enough for you when you told me you were pregnant, but this…" she trailed off and set a trembling hand against her abdomen, suddenly aware that growing within her was a little life that would, in nine short months, makes itself known to the world.

"I know you're scared."

"Scared doesn't begin to describe it. I'm _terrified_, Anna. There was a good chance your twins would be born with my powers because you're my sister, but my child will most likely be born like _me._"

"Is that such a bad thing?" Anna frowned, squeezing Elsa's hands. "Would it be so horrible if your child was like you? Are you really that terrible a person?"

"No, but I'm—"

"Exactly, it wouldn't matter. You wouldn't love it any more or less if it was born with ice powers, just like you wouldn't have cared if my children had powers or not. Elsa, powers don't make the person; you know that."

The queen felt herself deflate and laid her head on her sister's shoulder. They were quiet for a long time, younger sister holding older sister, the two lost in personal thoughts. Eventually Anna said quietly, "You know if you're worried about your little one being born with powers you can always keep up the tradition like I did. If what you've told me about Saja is true, you can make certain your baby is born without powers."

Elsa felt her pulse quicken as realization of what Anna was alluding to finally settled on her. "I can't make a decision like that without talking to Revel first."

"You do have a fair point there," Anna admitted. "Do you want me to go get him so the two of you can talk?"

"No, I'll go," she said, sliding off the bed but turned to Anna before her sister could move. "No matter what choice I make, you'll be right beside me…right?"

The uncertainty in her sister's voice made Anna pull up short. There had only been a few times in recent memory where Elsa had bared her soul to her sister, her usual calm mask pulled aside allowing the princess a glimpse at the unsure, and at times scared, young woman beneath her deceptively tranquil exterior. This was one of those moments, and Anna felt a wave of warmth crash over her as she slid off the bed and wrapped Elsa in a crushing hug, determined to push all the confidence and love she had into her older sister.

"I'll never leave your side. We'll do this together, you and me, I promise," she whispered and felt Elsa sag with relief. When she pulled back the queen was whipping away grateful tears.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she said, planting a gentle kiss on Elsa's cool forehead and walking her to the stairs. They parted ways, Anna going to find Kristoff so she could deliver the news while Elsa descended the spiral staircase and headed towards the royal storehouse after inquiring her husband's whereabouts from a passing guard. She'd barely gotten through the east servants' entrance right off the kitchens, the one closest to the storehouse, when Revel swung around the corner. He saw his wife and jogged towards her, concern etched into every line of his face.

"Elsa, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly, taking her face in his wind-chapped hands, his eyes sweeping over her body as if searching for some unseen problem.

The queen frowned up at him, unsure why he seemed so agitated. "I'm fine, love. Why?"

"I felt…something a few minutes ago," he struggled to explain.

"You felt something?"

"On my mark. I don't know how to describe it, but it was like the feeling you get when looking over the side of a high cliff. It was just for an instant, but then the mark started buzzing. When my thoughts turned to you it started burning, so I thought something was wrong. Are you alright?"

Suddenly, Elsa understood what had happened, and it was both curious and unsettling. Since their time in the troll territory, the queen and her husband had been exploring the depth of their physical connection through their brands. Saja had helped to explain things as best she could, but even the first Frost Born wasn't familiar with all the intricacies of the marriage between ice and troll magic. She surmised that there might be aspects of the connection she couldn't explain which seemed to be the case as time wore on. It was usually only strong emotion that triggered the connection to flare, but sometimes, on rare occasions, certain thoughts, actions or decisions triggered the marks in strange ways.

"It's kind of like we're being guided by something," he'd observed after the first few times the marks had flared.

"But by what is the better question," Elsa retorted, unsettled by the idea.

"Maybe our own intuition? Maybe this is a subconscious thing? We're somehow tapping into each other and acting as a guide?"

Elsa hadn't been wholly certain of anything and let the matter drop, determined to find out what was happening after things settled down. So when Revel had said he'd felt something come through his mark, Elsa knew immediately he'd been feeling her reaction to Brynja's prognosis.

"I'm…something," Elsa admitted and removed his hands from her face but was unable to keep hers from shaking. Her husband felt the tremble, and his frown deepened.

"Elsa?" he gasped when he saw silvery tears sliding down her cheeks. "Love, you're scarring me. What's wrong?"

Unable to trust her voice, she took his hands and gently placed them against her stomach, covering his hands with hers and holding them there. It took him a minute to realize what she was trying to tell him, and when he did the air rushed from his lungs at the same time his body flooded with a potent mixture of shock and joy.

"Oh my god," he breathed, voice barely above a whisper. "I'm… is it—are you—I'm going to be a _father_?"

She barely nodded, but Revel's searching eyes caught the movement and he let out a choked laugh. Seeing ecstatic elation overtake the shock on her beloved's face, Elsa suddenly felt the heavy blanket of dread and fear slide from her shoulders, turning her frightened tears into tears of joy. Her second nod sent him to his knees, amazement shinning in his green eyes. She broke into a giddy laugh of her own that seemed to have no end, tears still streaming down her face as she ran her fingers through her husband's wavy hair.

Arms sliding around her waist, Revel rested his forehead against her abdomen, his smile so wide it physically hurt. "Hello in there, little one. It's nice to meet you."

"It can't hear you," Elsa said softly.

"I bet it can." He was one his feet in an instant, pulling his wife into a powerful hug that broke off into a string of near frenzied kisses as their laughter and elation grew by the moment. Any second now, Revel felt as if he'd lose his footing on the earth and fly out into space had he not been holding onto his beloved.

It wasn't until much later that evening after a dinner full of excited chattering, most of it coming from Anna, that Elsa finally broached the subject she'd been dreading since the news of her pregnancy broke earlier that afternoon. She and Revel lay together on their bed, the latter settled between his wife's legs with his head on her leg, idly trailing his fingers over her soft skin. It was an unseasonably warm April evening, and Revel had unlatched the window and pushed it open, a gentle breeze lifting the gossamer curtains and filling the room with the sweet scent of blooming flowers and sea salt. He'd been humming quietly to her stomach most of the evening, allowing Elsa time to figure out a way to broach a subject that both terrified and shamed her. Finally, the dreaded anticipation became too much to bear, and she broke her silence.

"Revel, we need to talk about something," she said very quietly, winding her fingers through his hair.

"You don't need to worry," Revel replied lazily. "If it's a girl we'll name her Eira, which by the way is a beautiful choice, and if it's a boy we'll name him my choice, which is Hagan."

"That's…not what I was talking about," the queen said, frowning a little. This seemed to rouse her husband some, and he raised his head while giving her a confused look.

"What's on your mind, love?"

Elsa was quiet for so long Revel wondered if she'd gotten lost in her head again and hadn't heard him, but eventually she said, "What if the baby is like me?"

"I'm sure it'll take after the both of us. I mean, I don't know if you've looked in the mirror recently, but we're fairly good looking people; so regardless of who it takes after, our child will be shockingly beautiful," Revel jested with a wide grin.

"No, you're missing my point," Elsa sighed and closed her eyes, fighting the spike in her irritation. "What if it's like _me_?" She punctuated her last word by slightly icing Revel's hair causing him to jump and gasp.

"Alright, I see your point. So…what if it _is_ like you? What of it?"

"If our child has ice powers—"

"Then it will have ice powers. Where's the harm?"

Elsa stared down at him, unsure if she should be outraged or perturbed by his flippant attitude. "Have you forgotten what happened to me because I had powers? What I had to go through for most of my life because I was different?"

Sitting up fully, Revel folded his legs under him, face suddenly serious. "Love, what happened to you was because of your parents' doing. Yes," he said, holding up a finger to forestall her interjection, "you put yourself into self-imposed isolation because you hurt Anna while playing as children, but you were also not taught to accept your powers as a natural part of your person. That right there is the difference. Should our child be born with powers, they will not be loved any more or less. They will be taught to accept their gifts, and you will teach them how to control it. You will right the mistakes made by your parents, and I'll be by your side through it all. We all will."

"I don't just fear for our family, Revel, I'm also afraid of how my kingdom will take to having yet another…_freak_ on their hands," Elsa bit out, closing her hands into fists.

"You are not a freak," Revel urged, lifting her chin with his hand. "You're different and that makes you special, just like it'll make our child special."

"But what if there was a way to make certain the baby was born normal?"

There it was, the root of the matter, and Elsa blanched after broaching the subject, unsure how her husband would react. Revel leaned back and blinked, digesting the question and clearly taking his time deciding on an answer.

"You're talking about that superstitious tradition Anna did with the statue, right?" he eventually asked, speaking slowly.

"It's more than just superstition," Elsa said a little too tersely. "Saja confirmed its how all my ancestors born after her son Reinn were born without powers. It's a way for the curse to skip a generation, and had my mother gone through with it, I wouldn't have been born with powers."

"Shouldn't it be our child's decision whether they have powers or not? Isn't it a little unfair to strip their heritage from them?"

"If it protects them, yes."

"That's the same mindset your parents had about you, and look what good it did." Revel argued, knowing that his words would anger her but needing to voice them aloud.

Elsa felt her cheeks color, pulse leaping into her throat, irritation flaring into sudden anger. "Well maybe my parent's had the right idea! They didn't want anyone to hurt me, or vice versa, so they kept me away from the public until I could control my power!"

"But you never learned, Elsa. You hid from the world. Is that what you want our child to do?

"I can't put our baby at risk because of something it can't control! I was fortunate my kingdom didn't want to burn me at the stake for being what I am, but there's no guarantee Arendelle will want another person with ice magic living within its borders. What if we can't protect our child? What if something happens like what happened to Saja's children? Revel, I can't stomach the idea of someone attacking my family or my children just because we're born different. I can't bury—"

She suddenly choked on her words, unable to say the rest, unable to even bring herself to think it. Should anything happen to her children, or her sister's children for that matter, because of her, Elsa knew she'd never forgive herself. Her mind kept flashing back to the dream memory she'd had while in the troll territory, Saja hunched over three little shrouded forms, sobbing herself into exhaustion. Hand over her mouth, Elsa fought back the sobs working to escape her throat, aware Revel had pulled her against his chest and was gently shushing her, stroking her head with soft hands.

"Elsa, if this is bothers you so much go ahead with the tradition. Ultimately it's up to you because it's your body, but I'll support any decision you make. I just want our baby to be whole and healthy, that's all. Whether or not they have powers means nothing to me so long as they have ten fingers and toes."

Unable to speak, Elsa simply nodded her head and remained wrapped in her husband's arms, scared beyond belief when she knew she should be celebrating. With her the Frosberg line would continue, her child becoming the next ruling monarch after her death. In this she should have found peace, but all Elsa felt was fear.

_If Saja couldn't protect her children, how can I hope to protect mine?_

That dark thought followed her into eventual sleep and dogged her for the next three days until she'd finally worked up the courage to gather the necessary herbs and make the short trek to the Saint's statue in the residency wing. And that was where she found herself, staring at the cold marble statue with herb bundle in hand, trembling from head to foot. She knew the legend surrounding this seemingly absurd tradition by heart: knew all she had to do was leave the bundle with the statue, kiss its feet, and the child slowly growing in her womb would be born without powers.

_All you have to do is plant the bundle and walk away,_ she told herself numerous times, walking through the motions in her mind. _Just set it behind her, kiss her feet, and go back to your room. That's it._

Hands shaking so violently she feared she'd drop her bundle, Elsa stepped up to the statue. Strangely, she couldn't feel anything coming from her brand like she thought she would; Saja's connection either extremely weak at the moment or her ancestor was watching the events unfold, knowing her voice wouldn't make a difference in the queen's decision.

_I have to think about my child. I have to think about my kingdom. I have to do what's right. I have to—_

"I can't do this," Elsa gasped as if emerging from a trance and jumped away from the statue. Shaking her head, she blinked away her unshed tears. "I can't make this decision because it's the easiest choice."

Warmth suddenly bloomed in her chest, and she felt strength returning to her limbs as fear was quickly burned away under the powerful heat of conviction. Standing straighter, regal posture returning, she stared hard at the statue, imagining all the women who had come to this hallway over the years, leaving offerings and silent prayers, pleading for their children to be born normal. To be born without mistakes.

"I am not a mistake," the queen declared fiercely, ice crusting her fingernails and swallowing the bundle. "My birth wasn't a bad omen, and my powers aren't a curse. I am Frost Born, the first in four hundred years, and I will not forsake my heritage."

A loud crack came from her hand as the bundle shattered, Elsa grinding the herbs to crystalline mist and letting them slip between her fingers like granules of sand that glittered in the weak lamplight as they fell to the floor. She felt Revel step behind her, his long arms winding around her waist, hands resting over her abdomen while his head rested on her shoulder.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly, solemn severity in his low voice.

"I've never been surer in my life," Elsa replied and rested her hands atop his, leaning back and closing her eyes.

"I love you," he murmured after pressing a kiss against her neck.

"And I love you," she smiled, turning so that she was facing his chest. "Tell me something honestly," Elsa said after a long stretch of silence. "Would you miss this statue if I chose to be rid of it?"

"Can't say that I would," Revel replied with a chuckle. "Why? What did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking about commissioning one of my master masons to carve a statue of Saja that we could display here in the castle."

"I think that's a wonderful idea, though I have a feeling they'll wonder why you're commissioning a statue of a woman who looks just like you." He couldn't keep the grin from his face as they made their way back towards their room, a significant weight lifted from their shoulders.

"I'm just conceited like that," Elsa laughed with a wave of the hand.

"Well regardless of your shortcomings," Revel grinned and danced away from a swat meant for his arm, "I'm sure Saja will appreciate having her likeness placed in the castle."

"Maybe she'll start haunting other people instead of just me."

"She's fond of mirrors, isn't she? Why not put one across the hall from the statue so she can see herself?"

"You're horrible," Elsa giggled, playfully pushing Revel away.

"And you're gorgeous," he said, catching her hand and brushing a kiss atop her knuckles. "Have I told you that today?"

"Many times."

"Well, I feel the need to repeat myself," he rumbled, pulling her into a deep kiss that left his wife blushing around her ears and breathless as he broke away and continued to lay down a line of kisses along her jaw and neck.

"You know, you've already gotten me pregnant," Elsa whispered, unable to keep her flush from spreading across her chest and face or the trembling from her body.

"Have I now?" he grinned devilishly, opening their room door once they reached it and closing it firmly behind them, using the key to secure it and staring at his wife with predatory eyes. "And when will I get to meet this child of mine?"

"In nine short months, I would hope."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to keep ourselves occupied until then won't we?"

Elsa saw the gleam in his eyes and knew she was in for an eventful and inherently sleepless night, a thrill arcing through her body as her husband swept her off her feet and carried her towards their bed. Together in each other's arms, they explored already familiar terrain, marveling at the love and passion they shared for the other and riding the wave of pleasure and happiness well into the wee hours of the morning until exhaustion took root and they collapsed into blissful sleep.

And indeed nine months later, two days after the start of the new year, a new life was brought into a world thrown into chaos. The wind was howling like a savage beast, throwing itself against the castle and threatening to break the glass in the windows with its ferocity. The blizzard was the worst on record for normal January storms: ice, wind, and snow screaming in from the mountains and whiting out the countryside, burying Arendelle under so much snow no amount of shoveling or sweeping could keep it from piling into waist-high drifts. Townsfolk huddled in their homes desperately stoking their fires as the storm raged, unaware of what was unfolding in the castle.

The queen had gone into labor earlier the previous day before the storm had swept in from the mountains and broken over her kingdom. At first she'd been able to bear the pain with a quivering kind of dignity, but that was soon abandoned as the contractions intensified and the weather took a sudden turn. Body braced against the pain, Elsa struggled to breathe as she clung to her husband's hand, knuckles white and sweat starting to bead along her hairline. Revel had been prepared to remain by her side through it all, but at some point in the evening Brynja pulled him aside and asked him to leave. Of course he'd flat-out refused, but the royal Physician wasn't having any of it.

"Men think that by staying next to their wives during this process it somehow helps and eases their mind, but it does the exact opposite. Elsa needs to focus on delivering the baby, but her attention is split between her body and you. If you want your wife to deliver your child without complication, you will leave and let me and my apprentices do our jobs."

Revel had been on the verge of another heated refusal that would have undoubtedly escalated into something far more physical had Anna and Kristoff not been there to step between the two.

"You need to let her do her job," Anna said, gently echoing Brynja's words as the Physician locked the door behind her.

"I don't care what that woman believes; I can't just leave Elsa in there to do this on her own!" Revel raged, fighting to keep calm. The last thing they needed was him flying off the handle, but what was he supposed to do while stranded in the hallway while listening to his wife's muffled cries?

"It's better you're not in there, trust me. After Kristoff left I was able to deliver Jorg and Thea much easier," Anna smiled, putting a reassuring hand on Revel's shoulder.

"Elsa's not you," the king consort snapped and regretted his tone. He knew his temper was ultimately the direct result of his fear of uncertainty and the feeling of helplessness. Anna, however, seemed unperturbed by it.

"You're right, she's not. But I am her sister, and we do share some similarities."

Unwilling to press his argument, Revel began pacing the empty hallway like a caged animal, listening to the storm as it continued to slam into the castle. He went to the closest window and squinted through the dark panes of glass, watching the snow quickly accumulate along the outer sill as it blew at a near horizontal angle.

"I've not seen a storm like this since the Great Freeze," Kristoff commented in an attempt to break the fragile silence. Despite the misgivings he still harbored towards the former captain turned king consort, he understood how Revel was feeling and could at least sympathize with him. Having to wait outside for Anna to give birth had been agonizing.

"It just came on all of a sudden, and it sounds like a bad one." Revel couldn't help but wonder if this was Elsa's doing or if it was just a coincidence a whiteout blizzard hit on the night of his child's birth. After all he'd been through Revel was inclined to believe that there were no such things as coincidences.

Reaching out, he placed his fingertips against the window and felt the cold bite into his flesh as the glass shuddered and bucked in its pane as if the wind were trying to shatter the glass so it could invade the castle. A bloom of frost worked across the window as another muffled cry arose from the royal bedchambers, leading him to suspect that there was indeed something supernatural about the storm. The trio waited anxiously in the hall for another half hour before one final agonized cry drifted through the hall, its echo lingering for an unnatural stretch of time. It seemed to go on for eternity, branding itself into Revel's mind, frozen fingers closing around his heart. When it finally faded the silence was as tangible as it was absolute. All three royals realized with a jolt of shock that not only had the queen fallen silent but the storm had as well like the world had ground to a halt, taking all the sounds in life and nature with it. Then a single, tiny wail, sharp in the beginning but softening as it slowly diminished, drifted down the hallway, shattering the unnatural calm into thousands of pieces.

The brand on Revel's chest suddenly flared with such intense heat he audibly gasped and pressed the heel of his palm against the mark. Knees buckling, he would have toppled over had he not grabbed ahold of the windowsill at the same time Kristoff grabbed his arm and pulled him upright. Panic descended upon him since his brand never flared like that, causing Revel to turn and stumble back towards the door. He was about to throw himself against it when one of the apprentices yanked it open, ice snapping as she did. A wave of cold rolled from the room, raising goosebumps along Revel's arms and jerking him to an abrupt stop.

"Elsa," he panted, fingers clutching his chest, "is she—"

"See for yourself," the woman interrupted, rubbing her hands together and blowing on them in order to breathe warmth back into her skin.

Revel stepped past her and the line of apprentices leaving the room and pulled up short when he saw the snowflake spreading along the wall behind his and Elsa's bed, reaching fingers of ice continuing to snap and pop as they settled in place. His wife had been propped up against the headboard with dozens of pillows, holding a small wrapped bundle against her chest as Brynja threw a bundle of logs into the fireplace, hungry flames quickly consuming the dry wood and forcing warmth back into the freezing room. The Physician smiled tiredly at him as he approached the queen, breath turning to vapor around his head. Elsa looked haggard and exhausted; her face more pale than usual causing the dark circles under her eyes to stand in stark contrast to her porcelain skin. Her hair was a sweaty, disheveled mess that stuck out in a tangled snarl much like Anna's did, and Revel thought she never looked more beautiful. Brynja reached the queen before Revel did, gently patting her cheek in order to wake her. Elsa slowly cracked open her eyes and leveled them on the Physician who leaned down to whisper something into her ear. The queen turned her head and smiled tiredly at her husband, her eyes starting to return to their natural cerulean blue from the static white they'd glowed at the moment of birth.

"Hey," she managed in a small voice; exhaustion mixed with the numbing tea Brynja had given her making it difficult to string a proper sentence together.

He hadn't planned on saying anything witty, now wasn't the time for jest, but whatever words Revel had started to say suddenly dried up on his tongue as he closed the distance and crawled onto the bed next to his wife, staring at the child in her arms, sleepy little face turned towards its mother. Revel noticed in the warm glow of the crackling fire and the bedside lamp that the baby already had a few strands of pure white hair growing from its pink, wrinkly scalp. After a moment his shock abated some and he could speak once more.

"Is…is it a—"

"Hagan," Elsa whispered and shifted her son so that Revel could see him better. Hands shaking, he reached out to touch his child— his son— unsure when the tears had started falling from his eyes but uncaring either way.

"Hello, Hagan," he greeted in a quivering voice, curling around his wife and child, unable to stop from touching them both. It was unclear whether it had been Revel's voice or touch that had done it, but little Hagan grunted and scrunched up his face, tiny eyes cracking open as he shifted in his mother's arms. Even in the dim light, Revel could tell his son had his mother's eyes due to their unnatural brightness. Hagan's little mouth formed a perfect "O" as he broke into a wide yawn before settling back to sleep.

"He's perfect," Revel whispered, planting a gentle kiss against Elsa's temple after grabbing the tangled blankets at their feet and pulling them over his wife's bare legs. Immune to the cold or not, he wanted her as comfortable as possible.

"He is," she replied sleepily, stroking Hagan's chubby pink cheek with a cool finger.

"And so are you," he finished, fighting the urge to pull her against his chest.

Anna and Kristoff entered the room a few moments later, the latter carrying a small pouch the Physician had given him to give Revel with instructions what she'd be back in a few hours to check on the queen. They stayed with the two for a little while until exhaustion finally claimed the queen and she fell into a restful sleep beside her husband. Kristoff pulled his wife away and bid them goodnight, leaving Revel alone with his sleeping wife and child. Unwilling to disturb either, he pulled Elsa close and spent a few more minutes staring at the life they had created, unable to find a place inside himself that could contain his happiness. Finally, after so many years of running and searching, he'd found true happiness in a young queen gifted with ice powers and the child they'd made together settled contently in his mother's arms.

"Hagan," he said quietly, stroking the newborn's brow with gentle fingers. "Welcome to the world."

* * *

><p>Bishop Arren hurried towards the door and whoever was pounding on the iron-studded wood, grumbling under his breath as he walked down the dark aisle flanked on either side by lines of warm-wood pews. Throwing the latch, he was forced to brace himself against the door as the howling wind pushed against him, stinging snow and ice assaulting his face and making him wince. Squinting through the squall, he waved the messenger in, the man shaking snow from his heavy cloak and stamping ice crystals from his boots and cloak hem.<p>

"What's the trouble, my good sir? Why are you out in this ungodly storm?"

"I was told to bring you word, Holiness. Queen Elsa has gone into labor, and the Physician believes the child will be born before morning."

"God be praised," Arren smiled and lifted his rosary to his lips. "I will be certain to pay the queen a visit first thing in the morning. Thank you, sir. I would urge you to stay, but I know you have duties to attend to."

"Indeed, Holiness. I must return to my post immediately."

"Then may God bless your return to the palace, but be quick about it. This is a deadly storm and not one to be caught in."

"Sound advice, Holiness. I'll be on my way then." The castle guard nodded once before replacing his snow-dusted hood and pulled open the door, snow choke wind swirling around the two, dusting the marble floor with a layer of white powder. Eager to return to his quarters just off the main chapel and the warmth of his fireplace, Arren forced the door closed and groped for the latch, sliding it shut and securing the door. Despite his warm cloak and clothes, the cold still bit through the thick wool, chilling him to the bone and making him silently curse the unpredictability of the weather.

The storm had been a troublesome turn of events, driving many of the townsfolk from Mass earlier that evening as it bore down on the kingdom with an almost vengeful fury. Arren had been forced to close the cathedral in the center of town, urging those who lingered to light candles and pray to return home with haste lest they find themselves stranded in the blizzard. The bishop himself had lingered in the cathedral for quite some time, either bent in prayer over a cluster of squat candles glowing from within colored holders or copying notes for his next sermon. When it had become apparent no one else would come calling, he'd retired to his quarters but was awakened a few hours later by the messenger pounding on the large double doors.

Awake more than he'd like to be at such an early hour, Arren decided a few more prayers couldn't hurt matters. This was the queen's first birthing after all, and she'd need all the prayer she could get. Turning away from the rattling door, the wind still battering against it, the bishop made his way towards the semicircular apse at the back of the chancel where the candles were arranged under the feet of a modest crucifix. He made it past the last set of pews in the aisle and was about to mount the three shallow steps to the apse when he heard the doors loudly shudder once before creaking open, cold hinges squealing in the pitch black darkness.

"Hello?" he called, turning to squint down the aisle, brow scrunched in puzzlement. He was more than certain he'd locked the door. "Is someone there?"

When no one answered him save for the howling wind, Arren sighed irritably and began making his way back to the doors but froze when a new sound reached his ears. At first he thought it was just his imagination or perhaps just the strange noises that oftentimes accompanied powerful storms, but the more he listened the more it became apparent that the low growling wasn't just the wind blowing through cracks in the stone. Both perplexed and a little frightened, Arren edged towards the altar, old eyes searching the blackness that swallowed much of the stone structure. The covered wall sconces behind him provided just enough light to illuminate the apse but nothing more. He could hear a faint hissing and crackling sound like spreading ice moving towards him, the already chilled room growing colder by the second until he could very easily see his breath. The hairs on the back of his neck and arms suddenly prickled, Arren's body becoming aware that there was a presence with him in the cathedral.

"Whoever you are, show yourself!" he demanded in as commanding a voice as possible, clutching his rosary fiercely tight. When the growling grew in pitch he summoned his courage and stepped forward, facing the darkness head on. "In the name of Christ, I demand you show yourself!"

Out of the darkness the wolf emerged, shadows clinging to its body like strained vines, head lowered and teeth bared. It was far larger than any natural lupine animal, its shoulders taller than the pews that flanked it on either side. Arren felt his heart leap into his throat as the creature neared, slipping from the cloying, clinging shadows like a demon, ice spreading out across the floor wherever it set its massive hand-size paw. But if the presence of the unnatural beast wasn't enough to scared the bishop, the fact that it was made entirely out of glittering blue ice put such a seizing fear in Arren's chest he feared he'd stop breathing.

Mind whirling, he backed away from the beast and bumped into the altar behind him, jarring the contents of the table. Distantly he remembered he'd left the decanter of holy water he always kept on hand for quick blessings on the altar and sent up a grateful prayer. Spinning, he snatched the small, tin decanter and preparing to douse the unholy creature when a hand suddenly materialized out of seemingly thin air and caught his forearm. The bishop felt his legs turn to jelly at the same moment his world came crashing down around his ears as he stared up at the woman before him, the cold rolling off her naked body almost painful to be near. She was a good head and a half taller than he was, and her grip was powerful enough to shatter bones into dust.

"Holy water," Snaer said in an eerily harmonic voice, a wide, humorless grin stretching across her angular face, "cannot help you now."

Arren's jaw fell open with shock, his mind slow to process what was happening. Behind the woman the wolf remained, body still poised to pounce should the command be given, four inch long fangs glinting in the dim light. Snare proceeded to squeeze his forearm until he dropped the decanter with a pained gasp, but even then she wouldn't let go, forcing the bishop to his knees with barely any effort on her part.

"Be gone…demon!" Arren managed between gritted teeth, body beginning to shiver from the unnatural cold assaulting him. Already blooms of frost had formed under them, climbing the bishop's robes.

"You filthy holy men have no inkling what true demons are," the winter goddess sneered, looking around the cathedral with open disgust.

"What d-do you—"

"I'm here to raze your kingdom to the ground," Snaer interrupted. "But you should already know that."

The confused and terrified look on Arren's face briefly puzzled the winter goddess. She stared hard at the holy man, her unnatural gray eyes piercing him to his very soul but it wasn't until she touched his forehead with a long, spindly finger that his mind was laid bare before her. Arren felt the alien presence shifting through his memories as easily as if riffling through the pages of a book and felt violated in the worst way. After what seemed an eternity, Snaer removed her finger and therefore her consciousness from the bishop's, leaving the slender old man gasping and retching in her grasp.

"You humans and your arrogance. You think that simply because something is believed to be myth or legend that there isn't truth behind the stories. Well holy man, this was a legend you should have taken to heart. I will destroy your kingdom."

"I have…no kingdom or wealth of any kind, devil," Arren spat, regaining some composure and drawing on his faith to give him courage. "And any war you rage against Almighty God will end with your destru—"

Snaer's laugh was as cold as it was cruel, ice creeping along the floor and accumulating along the walls as she drove the words from the bishop's throat with a blast of arctic cold that sent fingers of frost crawling across his skin. Behind him, Arren became aware that the prayer candles, which had been extinguished up until now, were aglow with dancing blue flames that gave off cold rather than heat, the dip in temperature felt at the same moment he caught the scent of high mountain frost.

"The kingdom I speak of is the one built on the back of your false god who disguises the greed and corruption in the hearts of men behind high walls of opulent splendor and masks of kindness. I'm here to exercise the stain from this land and return it to glory it once held. And you, holy man, will aid me in doing so."

"I w-would r-r-rather die!" Arren fought to say, the arresting cold beginning to steal his senses. "I w-will fight you, devil, with…e-every ounce of my being and m-my God w-will—"

"You think that your faith will save you or that your god cares? Where he is now, holy man? Who stands before you: me or him?" Snaer snarled, yanking Arren to his feet and grabbing him by the throat, her face mere inches from his. This close and the cold was destructive, his skin beginning to blister and burn. "No, your god will not save your people, and he will not save you. You who is the descendent of the man who killed my grandchildren; you who bear his taint in your veins as surely as ice sings in mine. I have waited centuries to have my revenge, and no god, not yours or those who still slumber, will stand against me. So yes, holy man, you will aid me, but I know you will not do so willingly. That, however, I can change."

Arren screamed as a cold so powerful it registered as heat engulfed his forearm, burning through his robes and flesh alike until it touched the very marrow of his bone. It crept up his arm and across his skin, bitterly cold fingers invading his mind and pushing themselves deep. At first he tried to fight it but without an anchor to grab ahold of Arren buckled under the onslaught. Snaer eventually relinquished her grip and the bishop crumpled senselessly to the floor, cradling his branded arm against his chest. Ice crusted every inch of exposed skin, very nearly gluing his eyelids shut as he shivered and convulsed on the floor. When at last he opened his eyes the winter goddess stood a few feet away looking off into the direction of the castle, the storm that had been raging only seconds ago falling silent. She was running her fingers through the icy fur of the wolf at her side; a surprisingly pleased smile twisting the corners of her lips as she felt her fourth living descendent enter the world, the spark of power in the child like a beacon shinning in the night.

"It is said that only seven, gods or their descendants, need walk this earth in order for the old gods to return, and I will be the first to ascend. Only seven, holy man. In your case, it will be seven devils. My daughter was the second to my first, her son the third, your queen the fourth, and her son the fifth. I have no doubt the last two will come in time, and when they do I'll destroy everything you love. I'll tear down your beliefs and false gods, purge this land of your sins and return it to the beauty it once held."

With that she turned and made her way towards the doors and the black winter's night beyond them, the storms power waning and taking her power with it. Arren watched her go through barely open eyes, his convulsions subsiding some but his shivering only growing worse. He'd not noticed it before because Snaer had been facing him, but the winter goddess's spine and shoulder blades were charged with power, the bones under her skin glowing bright blue in the darkness. She came within feet of the doors before suddenly spinning, bringing her arm down in a sweeping arc. Arren felt something sail over his head, the air split by its passage, and strike the wall behind him. A half second later whatever had been struck fell to the ground with a tremendous clatter that caused him to jerk and whimper in pain as his frozen body shifted. Glancing over his shoulder, he gaped in avid terror as he stared up at the desecrated crucifix, half of Christ's body lying on the ground at his feet.

"Cherish the peace while it lasts, holy man, for it will be short lived. Rovdyr-ulf and I won't be far."

And then she was gone, disappearing into the night as quickly as she came. Arren remained where he'd fallen for quite some time, curled in a fetal position, mouth moving in silent yet frantic prayer. He would have never known it, but he wasn't the only soul that evening praying for the protection of his land. Up in the high mountains amongst the stones and moss, Pabbie jerked awake with a sudden gasp, his eyes bright with fear. When asked what had drawn him from his slumber he was only able to utter two trembling words that acted like a shockwave rippling through his people, the stones around his neck glowing so brightly they could have been tiny suns.

"Snaer's awake."

Back in Arendelle, while the unsuspecting townsfolk slept, unaware that the storm that had just ended was merely the precursor for what was to come, an old seamstress rummaged through an equally old trunk, her deft fingers searching desperately for the tool she needed. Eventually Ingrid found what she was looking for and stood with a barely stifled groan, bones creaking and popping with age. She tottered to a low table set before a roaring fire, ancient hands holding the equally ancient leather pouch to her chest, eyes closed in silent invocation.

"Did you get lost in thought, you old hag?" the raven perched on her bedpost croaked, canting his head as he watched his mistress prepare the casting.

"Call me that again and I'll use all of your tail feathers for quill pens," Ingrid muttered, eyes still closed as she called on power always close at hand.

"You do that and who would take my place as messenger? Huginn? Bah, he's worthless."

"Since he's your brother, doesn't that make you useless as well?"

"Clever," the raven grumbled. "So are you going to cast or not, because at this rate I'm liable to die of old age."

"You think you can do any better?" Ingrid snapped with irritation, still unable to shake the shiver from her spine. Something was wrong; she could feel it in her old bones as sure as she could feel the unnatural power walking through the storm. The disturbance had awoken her moments ago, the need to cast so profound she'd almost broken her neck scrambling out of bed.

"Let me cast this time lest you misinterpret things again. Wouldn't want to repeat past mistakes now would we? Your eyes are old, witch."

"Woodcarver," Ingrid mumbled, tossing the bag over to the raven which caught it smartly in his sharp beak. "Cast your runes then, Muninn. I cannot wait forever."

"Much obliged," Muninn croaked, flapping his wings until he'd gotten enough height to glide over to the table. Just before he perched on the back of a squat chair he let go of the pouch and sent its contents skittering across the table with a clatter.

"You couldn't have just tipped the bag over and let them fall, could you? Oh no, wanted to make a show of it while making an old woman crawl around on the floor looking for lost chips. This is payback for not giving you that bauble, isn't it?" the old seamstress grumbled, forestalling her search for any missing runes after getting a good look at the ones lying face up on the table. What she saw turned her blood to ice.

"What do you see?" Muninn asked, hopping off the chair and onto Ingrid's shoulder. Usually this earned him a swat but the old seamstress' attention was devoted solely to the carved wooden chips stained with her blood in the deep grooves.

"Nothing good." Spreading her hands she leaned close and examined the only three runes starting back at her. "Haglaz," she indicated, pointing to a rune that looked like an "H", "rune of destruction. Isa," she continued, pointing to the next rune that looked like an "I", "rune of ice. And finally…" Ingrid stopped, unsure what to make of the last rune or what it could possibly mean. She picked up the third and final chip, feeling it tingle between her fingers.

"Perthro?" Muninn inquired, further canting his head.

"Perthro, rune of hidden things, of mystery. Why are you here?" she wondered, speaking directly to the rune. Of course it didn't answer her, none of them would. They were just the rough indicators of what was to come, and though the casting was chilling, the final rune raised many questions. Gathering the chips, Ingrid prepared for another casting, unaware she was missing one final rune that had gone unnoticed as it slipped from the table. Sitting just shy of her left foot was a rune that looked like a stylized "Y". It was Agliz, rune of protection. It had fallen after Perthro, a fourth rune in her casting and perhaps the most profound. In Agliz there was protection, the foretelling of a guardian meant to arise and protect that which was threatened, but it also foretold of hidden danger, of corruption of divine forces, and was perhaps the most telling rune of all.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Well there you go! What? You thought I'd just wrap this up like a neat little package and set it on a shelf? Oh no, no no no, this was far too much fun to do. So until next time my lovely readers, and thank you again! As always, I'd love to hear that you think through reviews and tumblr messages. Don't be shy =) Also, keep an eye out for an entirely new piece I'm working on for the Frozen fandom as well as small shorts dedicated to FTFTIN. Review review review and I'll see you all soon! =D


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